Time & Confusion
by St0pSmackinMe07
Summary: After a hunt gone wrong, Annie, Dean's daughter, finds herself in a time and place that is not her own. What happens when Annie meets up with her family 20 years in the past. Will she be able to make it back to her time before its too later. I'M BACK!:D
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

**A/N**: Let me explain the character, Annie. Annie is a character that I've created for two of my other stories, **A Secret Life** and **Stand in the Rain**. She is Dean's daughter. You don't have to read those stories in order to understand what's going on in this story, but there may be some references to it, so it wouldn't hurt to read those.

Before you get reading I'd like to give a big thanks to my beta, **xJazminex**, and my friend, **silentpixiee**. Jazzy's helped me where i've messed up, and Pixiee had been the "YED with a firey poker" to keep me going. :D Thanks a bunch guys!

**Warning**: There may be some spoilers to Season 1 episodes in future chapters.

**Disclaimer**: Are you kidding me? Do you really think that if I owned Supernatural, I'd be writing fanfiction? Didn't think so. The only character I own is Annie, and I'm not making any money off of her. It's just pure entertainment for me to put the girl through the Supernatural ringer. :D

Oh, and I do not own the song Time & Confusion, of which the title derives, the awsome band Anberlin does.

* * *

Tiny shards of broken glass and dirt crunched beneath her boots as she made her way down the walkway of an old abandoned shoe factory, flashlight in one hand, a .45 pistol in the other. She tossed a stray piece of her chocolate-brown hair from her face with a toss of her head and she continued to walk, searching for any signs of movement or noise. Suddenly, a sound caught her ear. She paused mid-step, until she heard another sound. Footstep, it was definitely a footstep. She quickly pressed herself against the wall on the left hand side and as quietly as possible, she stepped closer to the edge of the wall. With her flashlight and gun aimed at the floor, she waited for another sound of recognition. She heard another soft thump of a boot against the wooden floor and she rounded the corner, gun armed and ready if she felt she needed to fire. But so did someone else. 

"Jesus, Annie! What the hell are you doing, trying to get yourself killed?" Dean exclaimed as he dropped his gun from being aimed at his 16 year old daughter's head.

"I should say the same thing, Mr. Not-So-Stealth-Walker," Annie snapped at her father as she dropped her gun as well.

"So, did you find anything?" Dean asked.

"No," Annie said with a shake of her head. "You?"

Dean shook his head. "I just want to find this damn demon and go home," he said exasperatedly.

"Me too," Annie replied.

Just then, Sam came walking up from behind his brother. "You guys find anything?" he asked. Annie and Dean shook their heads and Sam sighed.

"Well, let's keep looking. I wanna get this over with as fast as possible. You check down that way," Dean said, addressing Annie as he nodded his head towards the hall that went straight. "And I'll check down this way," he said walking over to the path that went to the right. "Yell, if you find anything."

Annie nodded and walked down her assigned hallway while Sam proceeded to check the remaining upper levels of the warehouse.

They were hunting a demon. A pretty nasty one at that. The demon would take its victims and kill them or hide them or… something. Truthfully, no one knew, because none of the victim's bodies were ever found. They'd simply just vanish into thin air, never to be seen again. After lots of digging, Sam had figured out that they were dealing with a demon of some sort, but not like any they'd ever encountered before.

Annie stepped down a small flight of stairs and into a large room. By the looks of the conveyer belt and large rusted machinery, Annie suspected this was where they once held the assembly line. The beam of her flashlight swept across the dark room until it suddenly flickered, before it went out completely. "Damn it," Annie breathed as she smacked the flashlight against the palm of her hand, hoping if she hit it the right way, it would come back to life, but no such luck. Annie sighed as she tucked her flashlight in the back pocket of her jeans and gazed across the large room. A thin veil of moonlight slipped through the large grimy windows, illuminating the room just enough to venture around it without running smack into a wall. Gun raised, Annie stepped around moldy old cardboard boxes and rusty old machinery parts. She stepped around a long steel beam propped up against the conveyer belt that had fallen from the dilapidated roof after the old warehouse had begun to deteriorate. Suddenly, Annie felt a searing, white hot pain in the back of her head and was immediately overcome by darkness.

- - - - - - - -

When Annie opened her eyes, she found herself staring up a disgusting peach colored ceiling. She looked at the ceiling curiously for a moment. She hadn't remembered her motel room being that color. And she was pretty sure she'd remember if it looked like _that_. As Annie sat up on the lumpy bed, her pounding headache made itself known. She gingerly touched the small lump on the back of her head where she'd been hit. There was a small square of gauze taped to the back of her head. She must've been bleeding. Annie gazed across the vacant motel room and sighed. She really didn't remember this place, and it was bugging the hell out of her. '_Maybe that blow to the head knocked something loose_,' Annie thought.

Annie tossed back the covers and got out of bed. She stepped across the room to the small round table and she gazed upon the objects adorning the table top. _That's weird. When did Sam get a new laptop?_ Annie picked up the newspaper and glanced at the front. She looked at the paper in confusion. The date read, "April 19, 2006". '_Must be a typo_,' she thought. Annie looked over at her Grandfather's infamous journal and noticed that looked a bit… different too. It didn't look as tattered and worn as Annie remembered it.

Annie was pulled from her musings when she heard a key click into the doorknob and unlock the door. But Annie froze when she saw two men step into the room. They looked like her family, but yet… they didn't. Sam looked so young and boyish; his long brown hair was shorter and more tamed. And Dean, he looked much younger as well. His face was no longer adorned with faint worry lines, and the slight speckle of gray Annie had remembered being on top her father's head, was nonexistent. Annie felt her chest tighten and the air escape from her lungs as she stared wide-eyed from one man to the other.

Sam and Dean stood in the doorway, looking at Annie with surprise. "You're awake," Sam said with a smile. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

Annie couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She didn't know what to do. So she didn't do anything at all.

Sam and Dean glanced at one another, both looking a bit anxious. Sam stepped forward a little towards Annie. "Hi, I'm Sam and this is my brother Dean," he said pointing with his thumb towards his companion. "We found you unconscious in an old warehouse. You had a nasty wound on the back of your head. We thought we'd bring you back here to patch you up and make sure you were okay," Sam explained.

Annie just stared blankly at Sam. He spoke to her as if they never even met. Was this some kind of sick joke? Then suddenly, realization hit her like a ton of bricks. She stared wide-eyed at Sam and Dean and then down at the newspaper, then back up at Sam and Dean. "I have to go," Annie managed to croak as she pushed past Sam and Dean and ran outside as fast as her bare feet could take her.

Annie ran across the pavement of the small town, stubbing her big toe a few times on the sidewalk, until she found a quaint little playground. She walked across the jagged pieces of mulch and sank down onto a swing. Her breathing came in ragged gasps and her body shook. She mindlessly swayed back and forth on the swing.

All she could think was, '_It wasn't a typo.'_ The laptop, the journal, the newspaper, it all fit. And unless they had some speedy anti-aging cream or something, she doubted that the younger versions of her family were a hoax too.

Annie was in year 2006. _Years_ before she was even born.

She was so lost in thought, Annie hadn't even noticed Sam come and stand beside her. "Hey, you okay?" Sam asked worriedly.

Annie looked up at Sam, blinking a few times, before she nodded feebly.

"Why don't you come back to me and my brother's motel room so you can rest? You really don't look well," Sam suggested.

Annie hesitated a moment, unsure if she should go with him. He may have been her uncle, but he sure as hell didn't know that. But then she thought that maybe a little rest wouldn't hurt, so she obliged and followed Sam back to the motel room.

When Sam and Annie stepped into the motel room, they saw Dean sitting at the motel table, flipping through his father's journal, but he quickly snapped it shut seeing the teenaged stranger trailing close behind his brother. Annie sat down on the bed farthest from the door, one she'd become so accustomed to claiming as her own. Sam sat down on the other bed while Dean remained seated in his chair by the table. Annie could feel Sam and Dean's eyes on her, studying her, reading her, trying to determine whether she was a threat or not. She had seem them use it on so many other people, but it had never been reversed on her. It was an unnerving feeling.

"So what's your name?" Sam asked.

Annie wasn't sure whether she should answer or not. She'd been thinking about it. If she really was in 2006, then that meant that anything she said or did in this time could affect the future in some way. And she didn't want to be the reason for her entire world unraveling, so she decided to keep the answers about herself to a bare minimum.

She figured telling them her name wouldn't send her universe into oblivion, so she answered softly, "Annie."

"Annie – what?" Dean inquired.

Annie looked up at Dean's eyes for a moment before quickly averting her gaze to the floor. She didn't want to lie, but she couldn't very well tell the truth, so she remained silent.

Sam and Dean glanced at one another with a bit of confusion. But Sam understood Annie's request for anonymity and moved to a different question. "Where are you from, Annie?" Sam asked.

"Kansas," flew out of Annie's mouth before she could stop herself. She really had to work on that silence thing. Annie inwardly cringed and stared back down at the floor.

"Kansas?" Dean echoed. "You're a bit far from home, don't ya think?"

"Where are we, exactly?" Annie asked.

"Upstate New York," Sam said.

Annie openly gaped at him. How the hell had she gotten so far from home?

"How old are you?" Sam asked.

"16," Annie replied.

"Do you know where your family is?" Sam said.

_I'm lookin' at 'em. _Annie shook her head.

"Do you know how you ended up in that old warehouse?" Dean asked.

Annie shook her head again.

Sam sighed, knowing that this was going to be the extent of their conversation with Annie. She obviously didn't want to talk to them. Although, he didn't blame her. He could only imagine how frightened she must've been, waking up to find a couple of complete strangers taking care of her, being so far from home and away from her family.

"Why don't you get some rest? You look like you could use it," Sam said.

Annie nodded and crawled beneath the covers of the stiff scratchy comforter. She rolled onto her side, her back facing the door, and closed her eyes, praying that it was all some freaky dream and that it would all be over once she woke up.

Sam stood up from his bed and looked over at his brother, nodding his head towards the door, silently telling him to step outside to talk. Dean got up from his chair and stepped out of the room with Sam.

Once the door was closed, Dean said, "Man, I don't know about you, but I think there's something wrong with that girl."

"What? Why would you say that?" Sam asked, bemused.

"Why wouldn't she answer our questions?" Dean said.

"Maybe she's shy…" Sam said.

"Yeah, and it's the shy ones you gotta watch out for. They're the ones that end up murdering people in their beds," Dean said sardonically.

"Dude, the poor girl just woke up in the middle of no where not sure of what's going on. What, do you expect her to be absolutely giddy?" Sam said.

"Dude, did you just say _giddy_?" Dean said with a smirk.

Sam sighed and rolled his eyes. He ignored his brother's comment. "I think we should give her a ride back to her place, take her back to her family," Sam said.

"Are you kidding me?" Dean said incredulously. "Back to _Kansas_?!" Dean groaned. "Dude, that's over a thousand miles of driving!" he exclaimed.

"Dean, the poor girl's parents are probably losing their minds not knowing where their daughter is. Who _knows_ how long she's been missing," Sam said. "And it won't be for nothing, we'll find a job in the area or something."

Dean sighed and reluctantly gave in. "Fine," he said. "But if I get gutted in the middle of the night, I blame you," Dean said pointing a finger at his brother.

- - - - - - - - -

When Annie finally awoke, she was still met by faces of people who were far too young to be her father and uncle and was still in a time that was not her own. Dean was watching TV with the volume turned down low and Sam sat at the table working on his laptop. Annie rolled onto her back and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She glanced at the old looking alarm clock sitting on the bed side table and realized she'd been asleep for a good three hours. Annie yawned and sat up in bed. Sam shut off his laptop and spun around his seat to face Annie.

"You're finally awake. Feeling any better?" Sam asked.

"A little," Annie replied with a half shrug.

"You hungry? There's a diner a block or two down the road," Sam said.

Annie nodded. Truth be told, she was starving. She couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten, but she knew it was a long time ago.

Sam, Dean and Annie gathered their things and stepped out of the motel room into the cool, crisp April air. And there sat, right in front of their motel room, her father's beautifully sleek, black, Impala. She couldn't help but grin at the sight. It looked just as beautiful as it did back home, if not even more beautiful, if that was even possible.

Dean noticed the grin on the strange girl's face. She stared at his car as if she was seeing an old friend. It was weird. "What?" he inquired.

Annie shook her head, but the grin never left her face. "Nice car," she said simply as she walked over to the back door of the car and got in. Sam and Dean got in the car as well. Annie asked from the back seat as the engine roared to life, "It's an Impala, isn't it? '67?"

Dean turned around in his seat slightly, looking back at her. "Yeah. How'd you know that?" he asked sounding thoroughly impressed.

A smirk tugged at the corner of her lips as Annie gave a half shrug and said, "My Dad's a bit of a car junkie."

- - - - - - - -

The waitress led the three of them to a booth near the back of the small town diner. Sam sat down on side of the table, and Dean sat down opposite his brother. Without second thought, Annie dropped down into the seat beside Dean. She always sat down next to her Dad in diners like these. It's just the way it was. Dean glanced at the teenage girl sitting beside him. He was a bit surprised that she'd chosen to sit next to him, especially considering he'd been giving her the cold shoulder ever since he and Sam had found her. It wasn't that he didn't like her or anything, she seem like a nice enough girl. There was just something about her, something… odd. And Dean couldn't help but be a little stand-offish around her.

"Sorry about this place. But there wasn't anywhere else to eat for another 30 miles," Sam said, feeling bad for bringing Annie to a greasy spoon like this to get her something to eat.

"Don't worry about it. Really, I'm in these places all the time. In fact, this is one of the _nicer_ diners that I've been in," Annie said with a smile.

Just then, a very blonde and busty waitress strutted over to their table, handing out menus to each of them. Annie wasn't surprised to find out their waitress's name was Pamela. Dean immediately turned on his flirtatious charm. '_Some things _never_ change_,' Annie thought irritably. The three of them ordered some drinks and began to look at the menu as Pamela sauntered off, Dean watching her with every step she took.

Annie very calmly closed her menu and swiftly smacked Dean on the head with it. He nearly jumped clear in the air by Annie's sudden outburst. The girl barely so much as spoke to them, now she was hitting him in the head with a menu. "Ow! What the hell!" he exclaimed, moving to the edge of the booth, away from Annie, looking both angry and a bit frightened. Sam struggled to contain his laughter at the look on Dean's face. It was priceless.

"Dude! You're _ogling_ at that waitress. Have some respect," Annie snapped. "Manwhore," she muttered under her breath as she very calmly and quietly, opened her menu and read what the diner had to offer.

Dean sat there, staring at Annie, completely awestruck. Sam couldn't restrain himself any longer and burst out laughing. This complete stranger, a teenage girl no less, had just told off his brother for checking out a girl. She'd _smacked_ him with a menu and then went back to reading it, completely impassive. Sam would have to remember to thank that girl one day.

"Shut up," Dean muttered, glaring daggers at his brother from across the table as Sam continued to chuckle softly to himself.

The waitress returned with their sodas and Sam, Dean and Annie ordered their meals.

"I'll have the Chicken Club and an order of fries," Sam said, handing his menu to the waitress.

"Typical," Dean scoffed. Sam shot Dean a glare. "I'll have a burger and fries," Dean said and handed Pamela his menu, but surprisingly, he didn't flash her his usual charismatic grin.

"Make that two," Annie said pleasantly, offering the waitress her menu as well.

Pamela finished jotting down the order. "Alright, I'll bring out your food in a minute," she said with a smile and strode away.

"So," Sam said, after taking a sip of his soda. "What's the last thing you remember before waking up in our motel room?" he asked.

"I don't know," Annie said with a shrug. "I was out with my family. And then everything went black."

'_Keep it nice and vague, then nothing bad can happen_,' Annie thought.

"Where?" Dean asked, with an underlying bitterness to his voice.

"At home," Annie replied shortly. Sure, it was a lie, but she couldn't very well tell them she was out with her family hunting some demon. That would only lead to unnecessary suspicion.

Annie was thankful when Pamela showed up with their food, so Sam couldn't continue to bombard her with questions.

They ate their meal in silence, but Sam couldn't help but keep a watchful eye on Annie. There was something about her, something… familiar. She reminded him of someone, but of whom, he did not know. And it bugged the hell out of him. But he was going to figure it. He was going to figure it out if it was the last thing he did.

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**A/N**: Reviews are _very_ much appreciated. :D 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

They'd been on the road for well over 10 hours and Annie was starting to get antsy. Sure, she'd endured some long car rides before, but being trapped in a car with your oblivious father and uncle from the past would make anyone squirm with discomfort.

For the past couple of hours, a myriad of thoughts bombarded her mind while she sat in the uncomfortably quiet car. They were the dreaded 'what ifs'. '_What if I let something slip about their future? What if I _change_ the future? What if I tell my dad about the demon killing my mother when I was a baby and he stops her death? What if I make things better? What if I make things _worse_?' _

She'd been having that silent battle with herself for a good four hours before she finally heaved a discontented sigh and said, "Can we please take a break from driving? I'm losing my mind back here."

Dean glanced back at the girl and saw the pleading look on her face. He looked over at his brother. Sam said, "Yeah, I guess we could take a break for a little while or something."

Dean was reluctant to stop driving, but after she'd smacked him in the head with a menu for checking out a girl, he was afraid of what Annie might do if he didn't stop the car. He pulled the car into the parking lot of another one of those small town diners. Sam gave his brother and incredulous look that said, "Are you kidding me? We can't eat here."

Dean just looked back at Sam and said, "What? She said that she _liked_ places like this. Who am I to keep her from what she likes, and we can actually afford it." With that, Dean climbed out of the car.

Sam rolled his eyes and got out of the car as well, and Annie followed suit. "It's okay, Sammy. I don't have a problem with this place," Annie said with a reassuring smile.

Sam stopped and stared at Annie, unable to hide the perplexed look on his face. There it was again, that familiarity. The way she'd addressed him. _Sammy_. It reminded him of someone, but he just couldn't put his finger on who exactly it was. "What'd you call me?" he said curiously.

Annie paused and stared at Sam for a moment. She thought about what she'd just said. And then she realized what she'd called him. She called him Sammy. Annie wanted to bang her head against the wall. How could she have been so careless? She knew that only a designated few could call Sam that. Other wise, he _hated_ when people called him by that nickname.

"Oh, uh, sorry. Do, uh, you not like to be called that?" Annie said, feigning oblivion.

"My brother's the only one that calls me that," Sam said.

"Sorry," Annie muttered again softly. She walked past him and up the steps of the diner and step through the two glass doors.

When they stepped into the diner they found Dean already sitting at a booth near the back of the place, waving them over absently as he glanced over the front of a newspaper. Sam sat down at the table across from his brother, but Annie excused herself to use the ladies room. She walked over to the small hallway that led to the bathrooms, but stopped and hid behind the edge of the wall, peaking around the corner to watch them. She knew the moment she saw the newspaper in her father's hands that he was up to something.

She watched from afar as Dean spun the newspaper around on the table for Sam to look at and tapped an article on the front page with his index finger. Dean leaned forward a little and spoke to Sam in a hushed whisper. A faint look of surprise washed over Sam's features, and then he too leaned forward to speak to his brother secretly. Annie figured that Dean had found a hunt. Annie saw Sam's thumb jab towards the direction she'd walked. Annie assumed they were talking about her, presumably about what they would do with her while they went off on a hunt. She watched her father shrug and say something as an expression crossed his face that told Annie that he really didn't care. For a split second Annie was a little offended that her father didn't care about her and that they wouldn't ask her to go along with on the hunt, but then she remembered that her family didn't have a clue of who she was or even knew that she was a hunter. So naturally, they wouldn't include her in the hunt.

As Annie abandoned her eavesdropping and proceeded to the ladies room, she thought that if Sam and Dean did go on a hunt tonight, she could play that to her advantage. She could take that time to slip away and do some investigating so she could find a way to get back to her rightful place in the year 2027.

When Annie returned to the table, she noticed that once she was in sight, Sam and Dean ceased their conversation. It reminded her a lot of the days before she found about hunting and the supernatural and about how she felt like she was on the outside looking in. They gave her what was supposed to an innocent looking smile as she sat down at the table beside Sam. "So what's going on?" Annie asked.

"Nothing," Sam and Dean replied in unison. Annie thought she faintly heard Sam kick Dean in the shin under the table in a '_real smooth, dipshit_' kind of action.

'_Yeah right, sure looks like nothing_,' Annie thought sarcastically.

"Hey, a couple of friends of ours live near by. Sam and I were wondering if you'd mind staying here for a day or two with us while we catch up with our buddies," Dean said weaving a tall tale skillfully.

"Dean, we can't leave her by herself while we go-." Sam paused and then bit out angrily, "visit friends."

Sam's comment made Annie want to laugh out loud. Like it wasn't obvious they were going to do anything _but_ "visit friends". But this exactly what had hoped for and she replied quite pleasantly, "Oh I don't mind if you visit some friends. I'm sure I can find something to do in this town."

"But don't you want to get back to your family? I'm sure they're worried sick about you," Sam said.

Annie shrugged and waved her hand dismissively. "Eh, I'm sure they're fine. And I've been gone for a day or two. What's one more day?"

Sam looked up at Dean, looking almost guilty. Dean gave his brother a look that Annie was sure interpreted as, '_See? I told you it'd work_.'

- - - - - - - - - - -

Hours later, night had fallen and Sam, Dean and Annie checked into another one of those shabby motels. When they stepped inside the room that was adorned with a hideous floral print and olive green walls with matching olive green shag carpeting, Sam gave Annie another one of his apologetic looks. Annie shrugged it off and sat down on one of the beds.

"Are you sure you're okay with us leaving?" Sam asked.

"Dude, I'm 16. I'll be fine," Annie replied.

"Alright, we'll be back later," Sam said. He grabbed a notepad off the bedside table and scribbled down a phone number onto. "This is my cell. Call if you need anything," he said holding up the paper for Annie to see before tossing it down onto the table.

Annie nodded and said, "Okay."

Once outside, Sam turned to Dean and said, "I feel bad leaving her like that to go on a hunt."

"Why?" Dean said, genuinely bemused.

"Because the girl's in the middle of nowhere with two complete strangers. And now she's by herself," Sam said.

Dean shrugged. "So what? She said it herself, she's 16. She's fine by herself. Quit worrying, Sammy."

Dean got in the car and fired up the engine while Sam sank into the passenger seat, still feeling a little guilty.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Annie got up off the bed and looked at the newspaper that her father was reading earlier. The article that he found suspicious immediately caught her eye, much like it caught Dean's. It read how quite a few teenagers had mysteriously died gruesome deaths in a decrepit old house after venturing inside. Annie suspected that it was a vengeful spirit. A simple salt and burn. She had nothing to worry about.

Annie looked to the clock. It was 7:45. She figured she had at least three or four hours till Sam and Dean returned. It would give her plenty of time to head over to the little bookstore that she'd spotted in town and do some research.

Annie stepped into the small, musty old book store. A bell hanging above her head signaled her entrance. A little old lady behind the counter looked up from the book she was reading and gave Annie a toothy grin before turning back to her novel. Annie immediately set out to find any book that could get her a step in the right to direction to get back home.

She found the mythology section near the back of the store (which she was surprised even existed in such a small store and in a town like this) and scanned the shelves for any books that could be of use to her. She grabbed a couple books, rousing dust off their covers, causing her to sneeze, and sat down at a table and began her research.

After Annie searched through her fifth book, still coming up empty handed, she heaved a frustrated sigh and leaned back in her chair. She could feel a headache beginning to wreak havoc behind her eyes. She pinched the bridge of her nose to try and delay the pain. Annie stood from her seat and picked up her books and walked back to the aisle she'd found them in. She put them back where she found them and then looked for anymore books that could help her. But she winced when the pain of her headache sharpened. It dissipated for a second before it returned, ten times more severe. She suddenly realized it was no ordinary headache as her mind slipped from reality into that of an unfortunate fate for an unlucky person.

_It was dark. That much was certain. The house was old and the floorboards groaned in protest beneath her feet as she stepped down the hallway. The wallpaper on the walls had long since peeled and chipped from the walls and had fallen to the floor amongst the dust and debris. Some portions of the walls had large, gaping holes in them where you could see straight through them and into the other room. _

_Annie heard a commotion coming from the far room on the left. She walked down the dark hallway, avoiding the holes in the floor, and stepped into the doorway of the room. There, she saw a young Dean Winchester struggling with a young woman that was nearly transparent. She looked to be in her mid-twenties and was wearing fairly modern looking attire, jeans and a tank top. She picked up a lamp that sat on a near by table and hurtled it at Dean's head, which he just barely dodged. He ran past her and dashed out into the hallway. The girl had disappeared, but as soon as Dean was out in the hall, he was met by the ghost's glowering face. The girl shoved him backwards harshly and Dean toppled onto the floor. The girl picked up a piece of metal pipe that had fallen from the deteriorating house and held it up above her head. Before Dean could react, the girl swung the thin pipe through the air, and pierced him right through the heart. _

Annie took in a few shuddering breaths before she cleared her mind of the post-vision haze. God, she hated those suckers. She realized that she was sitting on the floor of the book store with her back up against one of the book shelves. Annie clambered to her feet and dashed out of the book store. She contemplated calling Sam to inform him of his brother's impending fate, but she realized the piece of paper with Sam's cell number on it was still back at the motel. And she was afraid that she would waste an unnecessary amount of time running back to the motel and calling Sam, who probably wouldn't believe Annie anyways. So Annie did the first thing that came to mind. She found the closest unlocked car, hot wired it, and sped off towards the haunted house, praying that she wasn't too late. Because not only did her father's future depend on it, Annie's future depended on it as well.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Dean ducked as the vengeful bitch hurled a freakin' lamp at his head. He'd lost his salt gun sometime during the brawl and was desperately trying to find it. He ran out of the small bedroom, hoping it was somewhere in the hallway, but he didn't get very far because as soon as he stepped out of the room, that girl was mere inches from his face. He felt her icy finger tips knock him off his feet and flat on his back. He was surprised the floor didn't give out beneath him from the sudden weight flung down upon it. He kind of hoped it would because then maybe he'd find Sam down stairs and get _him_ to shoot Casper the bitchy ghost, and hold her off for a little. He watched as the ghost picked up a thin piece of metal pipe off the floor and lifted it above her head. '_Shit,_' Dean thought. _'What a way to go. And this was supposed to be an _easy_ hunt._'

But just before the spirit brought the pipe down in a fatal swing, Dean heard someone yell, "Hey!" followed by two loud gun shots. The spirit vanished and the metal pipe fell to the floor with a loud clatter.

Just then, Sam came bounding up the stairs to see what all the commotion was. He saw his brother slowly getting to his feet at the end of the hall. But he noticed that his brother was not alone in the hallway. He stood staring, absolutely perplexed at none other than Annie, holding a sawed off shot gun in her hands. Dean approached Annie, looking equally bewildered as his brother. "_You!?_" he exclaimed. He snagged the shot gun from out of her hands and glared at her. "What are you doing here?" Dean asked angrily.

"It appears I'm saving your life," Annie replied haughtily.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Dean dragged Annie through the door of their motel room, grasping onto her arm firmly, with Sam trailing close behind. Annie was hoping that maybe Sam would protest and get Dean to ease up on her, but she knew that that wouldn't happen by the confused and almost betrayed looked upon his face.

Sam closed the door to the motel room just as Dean rounded on Annie, face red with fury. "Alright, kid. It's time you start telling us who the hell you are without lying out your ass this time," Dean said fiercely. "_Now_," he said voice low and dangerous.

Annie looked from Sam and then Dean, trying to find a way out of her current predicament. But she found none.

'_I am so screwed_,' Annie thought fretfully.

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**A/N**: Reviews are delightful. :D


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: version 2

**A/N**: Hey guys. I'm super duper sorry for the long wait for this update. My computer's been on the fritz lately. :(

I just wanted to let you know, cause I don't think I've mentioned it in previous chapters, that this story takes place sometime after Nightmare in Season 1.

Ok. That's all for today. Read on, my friends, read on!

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Annie looked at Sam and Dean's expectant faces. She couldn't tell them the truth. She just _couldn't_. Who knew what kind of horrible, future changing side effects it could bring. But Annie felt that she really didn't have a say in the matter anymore.

"Come on, kid. We're not going anywhere. You tell us the truth, or we'll _make_ you tell us," Dean threatened, taking a step forward, his stature tough and menacing.

Annie took a step backwards by reflex. She had never seen her father this angry before, and quite frankly, it was terrifying, especially when the anger was directed at her. "You wouldn't believe me," Annie said. When she spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Oh trust me, we can believe a lot," Dean replied. "Now start talkin'."

Annie let her eyes fall shut as she took in a deep steadying breath. "I can't," she said.

"Like hell you can't," Dean snapped.

"No, you don't understand. I _can't_ tell you," Annie said forcefully.

"Why not?" Sam asked with confusion.

Annie sighed and avoided Sam's question. "Look, I should go," Annie said making her way towards the door, but Dean immediately blocked her path.

"No, you're not going anywhere until I know what the hell is going on," Dean said sternly. "What were you doing at that house?"

"I already told you… saving your ass," Annie replied moodily.

"How'd you know where we were?" Sam asked.

Annie sighed and said conceitedly with a shrug, "Woman's intuition."

"Cut the crap and start telling us the truth," Dean said heatedly.

"I _am_ telling you the truth," Annie said.

Sam knew that once again, Annie was going to keep her mouth shut about specifics, so he cut in before Dean and Annie had a full out screaming match. "Look, it's late and we're all tired and it's been a… stressful day. Why don't we get some sleep and then we can talk about this in the morning," Sam said.

Dean appeared reluctant to let the topic be dropped just like that, but Sam gave his brother a hard stare that Dean caved under. Annie looked thankful for Sam to steal some of the attention away from her. She definitely seemed shy because she appeared to fidget uneasily beneath their stares.

Sam gave Annie one of the pillows and a blanket off his bed. She took them and dropped them onto the floor at the end of Sam's bed. Annie lay down on the dingy carpet, resting her head against the nearly flat and deteriorating pillow and pulled the thin blanket up to her chin. She let her eyes fall shut, feigning sleep because she knew Sam and Dean would not sleep until they knew she was asleep.

It was about three in the morning until Annie finally heard her father and uncle's deep rhythmic breathing. She hadn't slept a wink, but merely waited until Sam and Dean were captured by deep sleep. Annie tossed back the blanket and got up off the floor. She grabbed a small notepad off the table and quickly scribbled down:

_Thanks for all your help guys. It really means a lot, but I just had to leave. You'll understand why some day._

Annie picked up her sweat shirt that was draped over the back of one of the chairs and quietly slipped out the motel room door. The cold night air nipped at her cheeks and her breath blew out in small white tufts of steam. Annie stood in front of the Impala. Its sleek black paint gleamed brilliantly in the moon light. She patted the hood gently with her hand and said softly, "I'll see ya later, girl." Annie walked down the sidewalk of the town until she spotted a car that would be suitable for her travels. As she expected, the black '98 Jetta was unlocked, like all the other cars in towns like that. She bent down beneath the dash and hotwired the car. Its small motor sputtered to life and Annie set out for Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

- - - - - - - - -

Bobby Singer was in his kitchen that morning making himself a pot of coffee when he heard load rapid pounding on his front door. "Alright, alright, I'm coming!" Bobby grumbled as he made his way over to the front door when the person on the other side banged their fist against the window again. He pulled open the door and was surprised to see not one of his old hunting buddies, but a pretty teenaged girl with long curly dark brown hair, who couldn't have been more than 16 or 17.

"Bobby Singer?" the girl said. It was more of a statement of reassurance than anything. She seemed to know who he was, although Bobby had not a clue as to who _she _was.

"Yes," Bobby replied with a nod. "And who are you?" he asked.

"I'm Annie. I was told you were the person to see when it came to demons…," Annie said. She paused before she said, "I need your help."

"Alright," Bobby said. He stepped aside and motioned Annie inside when he said, "Come in." Annie muttered a thank you as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her sweat shirt and stepped inside. "Can I get you anything to drink?" Bobby asked. "Coffee… water?"

"Coffee would be great," Annie replied with a smile.

Bobby stepped into the kitchen and pulled out two coffee mugs. He pulled a cup for himself and a cup for Annie. He glanced over his shoulder at Annie standing in his living room, gazing around the room, before he slipped his flask of Holy Water out of his pocket and poured a little into Annie's drink. He didn't think she was a demon, but better safe than sorry.

Bobby returned to the living room, two piping hot coffee mugs in his hand. Annie took the offered cup with a smile of thanks. "Have a seat," Bobby said, motioning to the couch behind Annie as he sat down in his armchair.

Annie sat down on the lumpy old couch and brought the warm drink to her lips. But before she took a sip she looked over the top her mug with a sly smile and said, "The old Holy Water in the coffee trick, huh?" Annie took a long sip of the warm liquid and naturally, nothing happened.

Bobby sat staring at Annie awestruck. There were very few people in the world who knew that old ploy of Bobby's, so how in the hell did this _complete stranger _know? "How did you know that?" Bobby asked slowly, peering at Annie with narrow, cautious eyes.

"I know you," Annie said. "You just don't know me."

"Who are you?" Bobby demanded.

Annie sighed and placed her coffee cup onto the coffee table. Annie figured that Bobby, not officially being family and having been absent for most of her life, would not cause any life altering changes to the future and was worthy of knowing the truth about her . Bobby was a trustworthy guy. If he believed her, she could make him promise to not say a single word of their meeting to her family. "This is going to sound absolutely crazy, but I swear to you, that I'm telling the truth," Annie said.

Bobby placed his coffee mug on the table as well and sat back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. He nodded his head for her to continue.

Annie took in a deep breath. "My name is Annie Winchester. I am from the year 2026… My father… is Dean Winchester," she said. Bobby looked at Annie is if she'd sprouted another head. "Before you say anything, let me explain," Annie added quickly when Bobby opened his mouth to say something. "My dad, my Uncle Sam, and I were on a hunt in my time. We were hunting some sort of demon. The thing attacked me, and the next thing I know, I'm waking up twenty years in the past. I don't know how I got here… which is why I need your help. You know everything there is to know about demons. You're the only person could think of that could help get me back home," Annie explained. She looked at Bobby pleadingly. "Please. You don't even have to believe me… just _help_ me," she said.

Bobby studied Annie for a moment. He looked her over, read the beseeching expression on her face and heard the slight tone of panic in her voice. She may very well be telling the truth. But that didn't mean Bobby was going to believe her. He was going to head caution with this girl until he had some good solid proof.

Bobby stood up with a sigh and walked over this his desk that was scattered with various books and paper work. "You said you were hunting a demon?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah," Annie said quickly getting to her feet and walking over to Bobby.

"What kind? A high class, a low level, or what?" Bobby asked as he picked up an old book and began flipping through some of the pages.

"I don't know. We weren't entirely sure of what we were dealing with. We'd never seen anything like it," Annie said.

"What about victims? What'd they have to say about it?" Bobby asked looking up at Annie.

"Unfortunately there weren't any victims to talk to. This thing… whatever it is… it would take its victims and they'd just disappear off the face of the earth, never to be seen again. There weren't even any bodies to look at. They just… _vanished_," Annie said. She shuddered slightly as the thought that _she_ could be the next vanishing victim crossed her mind.

"Well, if you are who you say you are, then it looks like we got a lot of work to do. So let's get started," Bobby said handing Annie a large leather bound book that was a lot heavier than Annie anticipated. She staggered a little under the unexpected weight of the book and lugged it over to the couch. Annie sat with the large book in her lap as she began scanning the pages for any information on this demon that was the cause of this whole mess.

- - - - - - - - -

A few days had past since Annie had arrived at Bobby's old junkyard home. The two of them had been researching for the entire three days and so far neither one had come up with a single thing remotely close to what they were looking for. Annie sat on Bobby's lumpy old sofa, reading about her twentieth book that day. She heaved a sigh as she finished scanning the last page of the book she had been reading. Annie closed the book with a loud thump. She rolled the large book out of her lap and sunk lower into the cushions. Frustration seemed to emanate from the young girl as she rubbed a hand over her face and sulked in her lack of progress with research on the demon that stuck her in this God forsaken place.

For the past couple of days, Bobby had kept a close eye on his guest, looking for the slightest indication that this stranger could in fact be a foe and not a friend. But in those couple of days, the thought that Annie could really be Dean Winchester's daughter came to the forefront of his mind when he'd see small glimpses of Dean in Annie's personality. The things she said sometimes, the way she looked at Bobby with those bright green eyes of hers, and the way she stood tall and unwavering to whatever Bobby threw at her, it was something that Bobby had only ever seen in the eldest Winchester boy.

But as Annie sat slumped over on Bobby's couch, she did something that caught his attention. Annie sat looking over at the book filled with various types of demons and stared at it scathingly. "God, I hate demons. Evil sonsovabitches," Annie muttered under her breath as she rubbed her hand on her forehead. It was so purely _Dean_ it caught the seasoned old hunter of guard for a second. And it wasn't just what she said, it was the _way_ she said it, with pure hatred filling her words as if she were holding a personal grudge against the beings.

Annie looked up when she felt Bobby's eyes boring into her. Bobby looked into her eyes with such intensity it was almost as if he were trying to look into her very soul and read her mind. "What?" she asked.

"You really are Dean's daughter… aren't you?" Bobby said softly.

Annie looked taken aback by the sudden question, but a small smile spread across her face, a smile that she'd gotten from her father. She gave a soft laugh and nodded. "Yeah, I'm Dean's daughter," she said.

Bobby let out a soft chuckle. "Well, I'll be damned," he muttered.

"So, what made you believe me," Annie asked curiously.

"The two of you are so much alike… it just had to be true. There was no other way to explain it," Bobby said. "Man, if your Daddy could see you now… that boy would drop dead of heart attack," Bobby said with a chuckle.

"He already did," Annie said softly.

"What?" Bobby asked.

"I already saw my Dad and Sam. They found me after I was attacked. I woke up in their motel room. The demon gave me a nice gash to the back of my head and they patched me up," Annie explained.

"Do they know… about you? Do they know who you are?" Bobby asked.

Annie shook her head. "No, that's why I ran away from them. If they figured out who I was, it could affect the future, it could change things. It could even erase me from existence," she said. "I just couldn't take that risk. So I left and came here. You were the only person I could think of that was trustworthy enough to tell who I was and might be able to help me find a way back home."

"Well," Bobby said getting to his feet. "No matter what year you're from, you Winchesters are always welcome in my house." Bobby clapped a hand to Annie's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. He proceeded into the kitchen and said, "Why don't we take a break from research and I make us something to eat."

Annie nodded with a smile and said, "That sounds like a great idea."

Bobby pulled a pack of hamburger patties from the freezer and placed them on the counter. He stepped out the back door to fire up the grill. Annie stood in Bobby's old house, unable to hide the grin on her face. She felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders finally being able to tell someone who she was. She didn't feel so alone anymore. After Bobby had realized that she was telling the truth, he had welcomed her with open arms. Words couldn't even describe how gratified Annie felt for the kind gesture. It was nice to feel welcomed in a world that was not your own.

Annie heaved a contented sigh and strode down the hallway that led to the spare bedroom that Bobby had allowed Annie to stay in for the past couple of days. She sat down on the springy twin mattress. Annie glanced over to the corner of the room where she had a small stack of books that had any kind of information on time travel, demons and the sort. It wasn't much of anything really, but it was something.

Annie picked up the book that was on top of the pile and sat down cross legged on the bed. She scanned the pages for about the millionth time, but sighed when, like all the other 999,999 times she looked at it, she found nothing more than what she already knew. Annie paused in the middle of turning the page. She'd thought she heard Bobby say something. But then she heard another voice, responding to what Bobby had said. Annie closed the book and stood up from the bed. She gripped the door knob in her hand and opened the door. She stepped down the hall quietly, so she wouldn't disturb Bobby if he had guests over.

Annie froze when she saw two men with their backs turned to her, talking to Bobby. Bobby couldn't keep himself from glancing over the two men's shoulders to Annie who stood stock still. The men glanced at one another and followed Bobby's gaze and turned around.

Sam and Dean stared at Annie, wide eyed. "You! What are _you_ doing here?" Dean said, completely perplexed, and yet infuriated.

"Shit," Annie muttered to herself breathlessly.

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**A/N**: Reviews are very much appreciated. :D 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Annie stood completely still, staring at Sam and Dean. And Sam and Dean, unbeknownst to them, stared back at their future daughter and niece.

"What are you doing here?" Dean demanded, giving Annie an icy glare. The memory of her disappearing in the middle of the night and leaving nothing but an extremely vague note behind was all too fresh in his mind. Dean's gaze suddenly averted to the seasoned old hunter he'd known since he was just a kid. "Bobby, what is she doing here?" Dean knew if he wasn't going to get an answer from Annie that at least Bobby would give it to him.

Annie glanced over at Bobby anxiously, the trust that she had laid upon him finally being put to the test. Bobby opened his mouth to speak, but then shut it in hesitation as he looked over at Annie.

Dean looked back over at the deceitful young teenager, pinning her with a scowl. "Who _are_ you?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

Annie swallowed thickly, but kept her mouth shut. In her mind she was rapidly deriving the quickest escape route out of Bobby's house. The front door wasn't an option since her intimidating father and gargantuan uncle were currently blocking the door. She thought of making a mad dash for her bedroom and jumping out the window.

Bobby pulled Annie from her thoughts when he said softly, "Why don't you just tell them, Annie?"

Annie's head snapped to the side, staring at Bobby with wide, surprised eyes. "What? No!" she shrieked.

"What's the worst that could happen?" Bobby said.

Annie couldn't believe what she was hearing. And to think she thought he was on _her_ side. Annie glanced over at Sam and Dean, who were currently giving them a couple of odd looks, before stepping over to Bobby. "I could go _poof_, that's what could happen!" Annie said low enough for just her and Bobby to hear.

"I understand that," Bobby said. "But they could help you, probably better than I could."

"No," Annie said firmly, shaking her head. "I can't. I _won't_."

"Excuse me," Sam said, stepping forward and letting him and Dean's presence known to Bobby and Annie, who seemed oblivious to the fact that they were still standing there. "Does one of you wanna tell us what's going here?" Sam asked.

Bobby and Annie looked at one another. "Go on, tell 'em," Bobby said, nudging Annie forward.

Annie opened her mouth to protest, but when she glanced at Sam and Dean's expectant and somewhat confused faces, her objections faltered. Maybe Bobby was right. Maybe they _could_ help her.

"Fine," she said, her demeanor softening along with her voice. Annie looked up at Sam and Dean and said, "Okay, I'll tell you… I'll tell you everything."

Sam and Dean gave each other a sideways glance before fixing their eyes on the mysterious young woman.

"My name is-," Annie began, but paused, before continuing. "My name… is Annie Winchester."

A look of immense confusion passed over Sam and Dean's faces. Had they heard her correctly or were they mistaken in hearing that her last name was _Winchester_. The brothers glanced at one another again, shifting a little on their feet before gazing back at Annie.

"I guess you could say I'm not from around here…" Annie said. "Hell, I'm not even from this _decade_," Annie said, giving a hollow laugh. Sam and Dean stared at her, their bewilderment growing with each word that came out of this girl's mouth. "I'm from the year 2027."

Annie's gaze focused on Dean as she said, "Dean Winchester is my father."

Dean stood, gaping at the teenager before him. Had he heard her correctly? Did she say she was his _daughter_ from the _future_? This had to be some kind of joke… it _had _to be.

"What?" tumbled out of Dean's mouth. "You've got be kidding me," Dean mumbled as he scratched his head. "So you're tellin' me that you're from the _future_?" Dean said. Annie nodded. "And you— you're my kid?" Dean asked. Annie nodded again and Dean barked out an incredulous laugh.

Dean looked over at his brother. Sam stood silent and still, looking a little uncertain. Uncertain as to whether or not he should believe her, or call up the paddy wagon to ship this girl away in a straight jacket. Dean looked at Annie with an insensitive grin upon his face. "Man, I've heard some crazy stories in my day but yours," Dean said, waving a finger at Annie. "Man, that's got to be the _craziest_." Dean looked over at Bobby and said, "And you believe this girl's psycho story, Bobby?"

"Yeah, Dean, I do," Bobby said stepping up to Annie's side in her defense. Annie looked up at Bobby with an appreciative smile. Looks like the old man was on her side after all.

Dean shook his head in disbelief, thinking that an early retirement would be in Bobby's best interests if he believed Annie's ridiculous story. "I'm surprised at you, Bobby," Dean said.

"Spend some time with her. You'll soon realize she can't be anyone _but_ your daughter, Dean," he replied.

Dean rubbed a hand over his face as he shook his head. Was he _really_ having this conversation with his old time family friend?

Annie sighed, looking a little disappointed. "You don't believe me," she said softly. It wasn't a question. She knew it would take lots of convincing to get her father to believe her, but she was hoping that he would believe her with Bobby on her side. Guess not.

"Of course not," Dean replied. He saw the sad look upon Annie's face and said, "Alright, alright. Let's say you _are_ who you say you are…" Annie looked up at Dean. She was surprised he was even considering the possibility that she was telling the truth. "Prove it," Dean said simply.

"What?" Annie said incredulously.

"You heard me," Dean said. "If you really are from the future, if you really are my daughter, then prove it. Tell us something that only _my_ _daughter_ would know."

Annie stared at him, eyebrow quirked. He was challenging her. And Winchester's never backed down from a challenge. Annie sighed and rolled her eyes arrogantly. "Fine," she said.

She took in a deep breath, steadying herself in order to knock her father off his high pedestal. "When you were four years old, and Sam was only six months old, your mother, was killed in a fire. A fire that was caused by a demon, a demon with yellow eyes. Your father –my _Grandfather_- witnessed the event. From then on, he raised the two of you like soldiers and set out on a life long battle of tracking down the demon to avenge your mother's death."

Annie paused to take in another breath. She looked to Sam this time and said, "Once you graduated high school, you left for college, getting into Stanford University, and on a full ride too. A couple years after you'd been at school, he," Annie said motioning to Dean. "Came to find you and ask for help because your father had gone missing. You agreed to help look for your Dad for the weekend." Annie's expression changed from arrogant to that of sorrow and her voice softened sympathetically. "But when you went back to your apartment, you found your girlfriend, Jess…" Annie's voice trailed off a little. "She'd died the same your mother had," she said softly.

"And then you set out to find your Dad so you could find the demon and kill the damn thing together," Annie finished triumphantly, giving a curt nod.

Sam looked at her in amazement and asked quietly, "How did you know that?"

"You told me," she replied simply, with a faint smile. "Or you will, anyway," Annie added thoughtfully.

Sam looked from Dean to Annie and suddenly it clicked. The familiarity, the fact that she reminded him so much of someone; it suddenly all made sense. He realized that Annie was practically Dean's reincarnate. They were so much alike. They walked the same, talked the same, they had the same mannerisms and sense of humor. It was almost scary how much alike they were. Sam couldn't believe how blind he was to not recognize Dean's daughter when he saw her.

"You're telling the truth, aren't you?" Sam said.

Annie nodded. "I am."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute," Dean said, rounding on his brother. "Are you telling me that you believe this nut-case too?" Dean asked in disbelief, jabbing his thumb in Annie's direction.

Sam glanced at Annie with a slight smile and said, "Yeah, Dean. I think I do."

"Dude, are you kidding me?!" Dean exclaimed.

"Dean, how else do you explain her knowing about our family, about the demon, about Mom and Jess?" Sam retaliated.

"Sam, _demons_ know about our family too," Dean shot back.

Annie sighed and rolled her eyes. Great, first he thought she was a nut-case, now he thought she was a demon. Annie contemplated which was worse. She was pretty sure demon was the shoddier of the two. She hated those sonsovabitches with a fiery passion. "Dude," Annie said, getting Dean's attention. "You can hose me down with holy water for all I care. I'm not a demon."

"Dean, she drank Holy Water and nothing happened. She's not a demon," Bobby said.

Dean still looked unconvinced.

"Fine," Annie said. "You want more proof?"

"You," she said, jabbing a finger at Dean as she took a step closer. "Are deathly afraid of flying, which is why you drive everywhere." Annie stared at Dean and began rattling off all the personal information she knew about her father that not even demons would know, to get it through his thick skull that she was telling the truth. "You'd pick a burger and fries over a steak _any_ day. You always pick the bed closest to the door. _Always_. You sleep on the right side of the bed. You keep a big ass knife underneath your pillow for "precaution". And your weapon of choice is either a .45 pistol or a Mossberg Model 500."

Annie released her breath like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Dean stood staring at Annie with his mouth hanging wide open. His mouth snapped shut and he clenched his jaw as he shook his head. "No, no, no. This—this…. You can't be… I mean…," Dean stammered. Dean looked over at Sam, who looked right back, looking quite impressed. The girl definitely knew Dean well. In fact, some of the things she'd mentioned Sam only just found out about.

Dean looked back over at Annie once he was finally was able to form a complete sentence and exclaimed, "But that's impossible!"

"I thought so too. But apparently not, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation," Annie replied.

Dean began to pace back and forth in Bobby's kitchen, rubbing a hand on his forehead. All this stress and new found information was giving him a headache. "But, how?" he said.

"All I know is some kind of demon is behind all of this," Annie said.

"Why don't you tell us what happened before you ended up here?" Sam said.

"Why don't we move this little chat into the living room," Bobby chimed in.

The four of them took the offer and stepped into the living room. Annie took a seat in a lumpy old arm chair and Sam and Dean sat down on the couch across from her, gazing at her intently, watching her every move. Bobby stepped back into the living room and placed two bottles of beer on the coffee table that sat in between the boys and their future daughter/niece. Dean took the offered drink gratefully and took a long pull on the bottle. Bobby sat down in his favorite armchair to listen to Annie tell Sam and Dean the whole story.

Annie took in a deep breath before finally speaking. "Well, the three of us were hunting this demon of some sort. It was hiding out in this old abandoned factory in Montana. I was searching part of the factory for the thing while you two were off looking somewhere else. Next thing I knew, I felt this sharp pain on the back of my head and then I woke up here… In 2006," Annie explained.

"Wait," Dean said. "You're a hunter?"

"Yeah," Annie replied. She saw the look of dissatisfaction pass over her father's face. She guessed that even long before she was born, her Dad didn't want the hunting lifestyle for his children.

"How long have you been hunting?" Dean asked.

"About a year or two," Annie said.

"Really? That's it?" Dean asked, looking a little confused.

"Yeah," she said. "I kinda wasn't supposed to know. But being the nosy teenager that I am, I eventually found out about what you _really_ did on those hunting trips," Annie said with a little laugh.

"How'd you do that?" Sam asked interestedly.

"I may have snuck into the car when you two left for a weekend hunting trip. You can imagine my surprise when I realized you weren't hunting fuzzy animals," Annie said thinking back on that fateful day she snuck into the back seat of her father's car one morning while Sam and Dean left for a hunt. She'd gone completely undetected for a good three hours while on the road, that is, until she let a dainty sneeze making herself known to her fellow passengers. She could still see the look of fury on her father's face and hear him shouting at her angrily.

"So, you didn't know about hunting before then?" Dean asked.

"Nope. You kinda lied to me about the whole hunting the supernatural thing. Not that I blame you or anything," Annie said with a shrug. "You didn't want this kind of life for me. I get that now."

Dean stared at Annie long and hard. He studied her bright green eyes, eyes that mirrored his own. And her smile was an exact replica of his. Dean sighed before he spoke softly, "You really are my kid, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Annie said grinning as she nodded her head. "I'm your kid."

Dean heaved another sigh and ran a hand over his face and through his short dirty-blonde hair. Everything was happening so fast, he could barely wrap his mind around the insane concept. One minute him and Sam were coming to Bobby for some help on a hunt, the next he finds out he has a daughter someday (which was baffling in itself) that hunts.

"So," Annie said, letting out a sigh. "Any questions?" she said with a smile.

"Yeah, I've got a few," Sam said.

"Okay, go ahead," Annie replied.

"Why'd you take off like you did?" Sam asked.

Annie sighed. "I didn't want you to know who I was. I was afraid I would affect the future or something. I didn't want to take an unnecessary risk by staying with the two of you," she explained.

"I'm just curious as to why you didn't take the Impala when you took off. The keys were sitting on the table the whole time. It would've been easy for you to take it," Dean said.

Annie smiled at her father. "Because I know you love that car too damn much. I just didn't have the heart to steal her from you," she said with a laugh.

Annie couldn't help but feel a bit lighter than she had before. Here she sat, discussing her father's love of his beloved Impala, sharing a laugh with her father and uncle who were 20 years younger than the men that she'd grown up with. Annie was still there speaking with them. She hadn't disappeared into oblivion after telling them the truth about who she was. Everything was perfectly fine.

She only hoped it would stay that way.

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**A/N**: So Annie's spilled the beans and the boys know who she is.

This is where the fun begins. :D

Reviews, as always, are greatly appreciated.

Thanks a bunch guys. 33


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Annie heaved a sigh as she scanned through about the millionth book that Bobby had on demons and still managed to get nowhere. She sat at Bobby's kitchen table, with Sam and Dean also reading, sitting beside her. Bobby and Annie had quickly set the boys to work because they figured that four brains were better than two.

Annie let her head thump down onto the pages of the old book that smelled faintly of tobacco and moth balls. She let out a frustrated groan. Annie pushed back her chair and said, "I'm taking a break," as she strode down the downstairs hallway to the spare bedroom she was staying in. She tossed herself onto her bed and buried her face in her pillow. She was so tired of searching and searching and each time coming up with absolutely nothing. She just wanted to go home.

Annie couldn't help but admit how _awkward_ it was being around the younger versions of her Dad and Uncle. Dean was still stand-offish, and Annie could still sense and underlying skepticism. He avoided eye contact with her at all times and seemed over all uneasy around Annie. And Sam… Well, Sam was still as kind-hearted and compassionate as ever, if not _more_ caring (if that was even possible). But his kindness was more generic than what Annie had grown up with. When he gave her words of reassurance or a bright smile it wouldn't be from Sam Winchester: Bestest Uncle in the Whole World, it was from Sam Winchester: Complete Stranger.

And it made Annie homesick. She missed being around the Winchester men she _really_ knew, the men she'd grown up with. The men who had raised her, the men who had picked her up when she fell, the men who kissed her boo-boos and made pinky promises with her as a child. Annie missed her Dad and her Uncle Sammy.

Sure, Dean may have looked an awful lot like her Dad; he may have sounded like him, acted like him, but the truth of the matter was that he was _not_ him. Annie figured that out after spending some time with him. Her father seemed a great deal more mature than Dean, which Annie supposed was a result of parenthood and the wisdom that he'd accumulated over the years. And Dean seemed much more carefree now. Sure, Annie's Dad was laid back and outgoing, but this was different. Dean seemed… _happier_. He wasn't bogged down by stress, he wasn't in a constant state of alert and he had only _one_ person to look after now. Dean only had Sam to watch out for, as apposed to her father, who looked after both her _and_ Sam. She could only imagine how exhausting it could be. Not that Annie helped with the matter. She was a bit of a rebellious teenager, something her Dad numerously said that she'd gotten from Sam.

Annie lifted her head from the pillow when she'd heard a light tapping on her door, which she assumed to be Sam. Sam was more of a light tapper, when her Dad was more of a loud pounder; it was just something she'd observed from over the years.

"Come in," she said, and sure enough, Sam stepped into the room, offering her one of those generic, kind smiles again. Annie wrangled in the urge to groan at the reminder that she wasn't in Kansas anymore. "Hi, Sam," she said, sitting up on her bed.

"Hey. How ya holding up?" Sam asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed beside Annie.

Annie shrugged in reply. "Okay, I guess, considering…"

Sam gave her a sympathetic look. "Well, the reason I came here was because I noticed that you're still wearing the same clothes that Dean and I found you in. And I figured that your clothes are still back in your time…," Sam said. Annie looked down at herself. She was still wearing a pair of jeans and a black band t-shirt. She grimaced. She hadn't really looked at herself in the mirror for the past couple of days; she'd been too busy researching to even care what she looked like. Annie's jeans and shirt were dirty and wrinkled. Annie's bags and all her possessions were still back in her time, so she didn't have any clothes to change into. And Annie had been so dedicated to finding a way back, so it'd been a little while since she'd showered. And she was sure it showed. "I wanted to give you this," Sam said, handing Annie a credit card. "Take the credit card and get all the things you need."

"What?" Annie said, taken aback.

"Who knows how long you're going to be here, and I doubt you want to have to wear those clothes any longer," Sam said a faint smile.

Annie looked down at the credit card and couldn't help but laugh. She looked up at Sam with that glint in her eye that reminded Sam so much of his brother, it was scary. "This thing is faker than Pamela Anderson's boobs," Annie said, eyebrow quirked, and an amused grin on her face.

Sam hung his head and laughed softly. "Yeah," he said, looking apologetic. "Sorry about that, but we're, uh, kinda running low on cash. Fake credit cards are the only thing we really have left."

Annie smiled. "Don't worry about it. It's okay," she said.

"You know how to forge a signature, right?" Sam asked, the thought suddenly coming to mind.

Annie nodded and replied confidently, "Yeah." She looked down at the back of the card, recognizing her father's handwriting. "Especially his," Annie said, nodding her in the direction of the kitchen where Dean was currently residing. Sam gave Annie this look that said, '_Oh, really?_'

"What?" Annie said defensively. "So, I've forged my Dad's signature on a school paper or two? What kid _hasn't_ forged their parent's signature?" Annie said pointedly.

Sam just laughed and shook his head. The term "Dad" in regards to Dean was still foreign to him and it would take some getting used to, because let's face it, Dean a _Dad_? That's just plain weird.

"Well," Sam said, standing up. "I better get back to work so we can get you back home."

Annie smiled and nodded. "Hey Sam?" Annie said, calling him back before he reached the door.

"Yeah?" Sam said, turning around to face her.

"Thanks," Annie said with a smile.

Sam smiled. "Well, I'm your uncle. It's my job to spoil you, isn't it?" he replied and then stepped out of the room.

Annie sat, smiling to herself. In that moment before Sam left the room, Annie got a glimpse of the Uncle Sammy that she'd come to know and love. It was a nice feeling knowing the man she knew was somewhere deep down in that guy that she'd just met.

Annie stood up from the bed, slipped the credit card Sam gave her into the back pocket of her jeans, and stepped out of her room. She walked into the kitchen where Sam, Dean and Bobby sat doing research and from time to time one of them would write down some notes onto a piece of notebook paper. Annie picked up her jacket off the back of a wooden kitchen chair and put it on. "I'm gonna run into town for some stuff. I'll be back in a little while," Annie told them before turning and stepping out the front door.

Annie got into the car that she'd stolen, hotwired it, and sped off into town.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

A few hours later Annie walked through the front door of Bobby's home with a large amount of shopping bags in her hands.

The three men, who remained seated at the kitchen table, looked up at Annie's return. "What the hell did you buy?" Dean asked with a look of surprise on his face upon seeing the bags in Annie's hands.

"Just some clothes and stuff," Annie said with a shrug. With that, she stepped down the hall to the spare bedroom. A minute later, she reemerged, but with just two bags in her hands and she stepped upstairs to Bobby's bathroom. She thought it was time she cleaned herself up and take a shower.

About a half hour later, Annie stepped out of the bathroom feeling fresh and clean. She was no longer in her dirty old clothes, but a new pair of jeans and her new Led Zeppelin t-shirt that she'd bought at a mall that she'd found near by.

Annie was in all her glory when she'd stepped inside the mall. She loved the vintage look and when she found the style in nearly every store, she was more than thrilled. Annie had bought a few necessities like a few pairs of underwear and some bras, as well as jeans and shirts. And then Annie went to the grocery store and bought herself some shampoo and conditioner and a hairbrush. Annie bought all the things that she'd need for daily life; she was good to go.

Dean was reading one of Bobby's books when he heard Annie skipping down the stairs and stepping into the kitchen. He glanced up at her, and did a double take. Annie looked like a completely different person. She was in new clothes and her dark hair was well kept, falling in loose curls down her back. And her face was clean, free from any dirt and blemishes that once covered it. Her ivory skin seemed to glow with a radiance Dean hadn't seen before. It was then that Dean noticed what a beautiful girl Annie was. Dean couldn't help but smile, knowing that his future daughter would one day have a beauty that he was almost certain she had obtained from her mother, whoever she may be.

Dean's grin broadened when he looked at her shirt. Led Zeppelin. They shared an interest in the same 80's rock band. "Nice shirt," Dean commented.

"I know, isn't it?" Annie replied cheerfully as she sat down in the empty seat beside Sam. "I was so happy when I spotted it. I love Zeppelin. But they don't have anything like this back in my time."

"Bummer," Dean said.

"Yeah, I know," Annie said with a nod of her head. "Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong decade," she said. "So, you guys find anything?" Annie asked, looking over at Sam and Bobby.

They each shook their heads regretfully. "No, sorry," Sam said. Annie's sighed.

"The trouble is, we don't know what kind of demon we're looking for," Bobby said.

Annie nodded. "I have a theory…" Annie said as she bit her lip in contemplation.

"Okay," Dean said, waving his hand for her to continue.

"Well," Annie began. "You know how there are some demons that control natural disasters and things like that?"

"Yeah," Dean said, while Sam and Bobby nodded.

"What if this demon can control time?" Annie said. "The victims of the demon just disappeared, and then they're never seen ever again, right?" Annie said. Sam, Dean and Bobby nodded their heads. "Well, what if the victims are sent into the past, or even the future, and they never figured out a way to get back?" she said. "Or..." Annie said, letting her words trail off.

"Or, what?" Dean inquired.

"Or there's the alternative that I _really _hope is wrong... That something happened to the people in whatever time they were in, and _that's_ why they never came back," Annie said with an uneasy look.

"Have you noticed anything strange, anything out of the ordinary lately?" Dean asked.

Annie shook her head. "Nothing as of yet, but who knows how long it takes for something 'strange' to happen," Annie said. Annie couldn't help but feel a little afraid at the thought of the demon that sent her there would eventually find a way to kill her, and she'd never see her father or uncle again.

It was almost as if Sam read Annie's mind when he said, "Don't worry, Annie. We're not going to let anything happen to you."

Annie looked up at Sam, saw the determined Winchester fire in his eyes, and she smiled. She lifted her fist, with her pinky sticking up in the air and held it out in front of him when she said, "Promise?"

* * *

**A/N**: Hey guys. First off, I am so so so so so so so sorry for the incredibally long wait for this update. Especially after things started to get rolling with the story. And I'm going to spare you the long list of excuses I have. But I'm really sorry.

But now that my muse has returned from vacation, I believe I'll be able to update more frequently now.

Well, I hope you enojyed the chapter.

Reviews are very much appreciated.

And thanks for your patience. :D

-kelly.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Dean sat by himself in a creaky old wooden chair on the dimly lit back porch of Bobby's house. A cold beer bottle was cradled in his hands as he blankly looked over the dark, crowded junkyard that was Bobby Singer's back yard. Dean had snuck off to a place where he could be by himself after a rather awkwardly silent dinner with Sam, Bobby, and Annie. He just needed to sit in a nice quiet place on his own and try to wrap his mind around the current events. 

Annie was his _daughter_.

At first Dean didn't believe a word that she said. She'd already lied to him and Sam before, what's to say that she wasn't lying when she told them who she really was. But after spending a few days with her, watching and studying her, noting her subtle antics and how she carried a confidence that only a Winchester could have. He was slowly, but surely was beginning to believe that she was in fact, his future daughter.

Annie was often oblivious about it, but some of the things she said and did, it would remind Dean so much of himself. But it wasn't just _that_ she said it, it was _how_ she said it. She delivered a line with that air of the patented Dean Winchester confidence to a point where it was nearly arrogance, but there was still that underlying humbleness that was even apparent to complete strangers.

'_Sam was right, she _is_ like me. _Exactly_ like me_,' Dean thought.

Even despite the fact that Annie was like him in everyway possible, and that she _was_ his daughter, Dean had to admit that Annie was a pretty cool kid. She was smart, funny, laid back, passionate, understanding, patient. She was everything that Dean had ever hoped his kid would someday be. But there was still something about her that just…. _bugged_ him.

Annie was a hunter. And after spending a few days with her, it was apparent that she was a damn good one.

Dean couldn't help but feel a sense of pride swell in chest. She was a talented hunter. She had a keen eye for detail, was able to put together facts and form patterns that most people would over look. She had a natural skill for the job that couldn't be taught; it was something you were born with.

But yet, at knowing this, at knowing how gifted Annie was at hunting, something inside of him crumbled away with restlessness.

Sure, Dean was never a white picket fence, perfect, suburban family kind of guy. In fact, the thought of that kind of life style sent chills down his spine. But he never wanted this kind of life for his kids. He'd always imagined that someday if he was fortunate to live long enough to find the right girl to settle down with and start having a family that their kids would be like normal, everyday kids. He wanted them to have the childhood that he was never allowed to have. He wanted them to have a hunting-free life.

'_Looks like I did a bang up job on that_,' Dean thought bitterly.

Dean sighed as he rubbed a hand over his tired, stubble covered face and through his short dirty blonde hair. He looked out over the salvage yard and took a long pull on his slowly warming beer.

Dean was pulled away from his far away thoughts when he heard the screen door open up with a loud creak. He looked up and saw Annie step onto the back porch. She gave him a small smile and quietly said, "Hey." Dean nodded his head in acknowledgement, but didn't say anything.

"Mind if I join you?" Annie asked, her head titled to the side slightly as she looked down at Dean.

Dean noncommittally shrugged, so Annie pulled up another old wooden chair and sat down beside him.

"Nice night," Annie said softly, noting how beautifully the stars dotted the night sky.

"Mhmm," Dean replied, taking another swig of his beer.

Annie looked over at him with concern. Dean looked like he was coming apart at the seams, like everything he knew, everything that was familiar to him, had just been pulled out from under him. Not that Annie blamed him. She guessed that meeting your future daughter could have that effect on you.

"Are you okay, Dad?" she asked with concern.

She hadn't even realized what she'd said until she saw Dean physically flinch at the word "Dad".

"Could you please not call me that?" Dean said tentatively, not even daring to make eye contact. "It's just… weird."

Annie could practically feel her heart shatter into a million pieces as she was bitterly reminded of the fact that this man was _not_ her father. But what made it worse, was that right now, he didn't _want_ to be. She understood why. She was a stranger to him, she was someone who hadn't yet earned the right to be able to call him such an intimate title; that wouldn't come for another six years, but that's not to say it didn't hurt.

She swallowed thickly against the lump that had formed in her throat and bit back the sting of bitter tears because quite frankly, she missed her Dad, and this man, this… _Dean_ as she was to call him, was not him.

Annie nodded. "Oh… Yeah, okay. Sorry," she said softly, unable to hide the slight quaver in her voice.

Dean and Annie sat in an awkward silence for quite some time, both staring blankly out into the dark night, before Annie finally stood up, and stepped inside, without even saying a single word to Dean.

Dean glanced down at the chair beside him that Annie had previously been occupying, taking his hand and ghosting across the warm surface of it, and then looked back out across the enigmatic junk yard, heaving a sigh.

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**A/N**: Reviews are very much appreciated. :D


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**A/N**: Hey guys. So first off, sorry for the long wait for the chapter. I'm going to try my hardest to update atleast once a week... Let's see how that goes.

Secondly, Season 3 of Supernatural premiered this past week!! Eeep! -does the SPN season premiere jig- :)

Thirdly, big thanks to my beta **xJazminex **and my friend **silentpixiee **for poking and prodding me this past week to finish the chapter.

Fourthly, i wanna thank YOU GUYS for being absolutely wonderful and following the story and reviewing(yayz!) (and it's been nothing but good reviews. double yayz!) You guys are too good to me. lol. :)

Well I'll leave you be and let you read this long over due chapter.

**Disclaimer**: In case some of you may have forgotten, I don't own Supernatural. The sadistic bastard, Kripke, does. In result he also has kidnapped my soul and turned me into a Supernatural-loving zombie. Not that that's a bad thing...

* * *

Annie had been at Bobby's house for a little over two weeks now. Sam and Dean had joined Annie in her stay with their old family friend about ten days ago. They had spent the entire time researching, to find a way to get Annie back to her own time in 2027.

Sam was the one who approached Annie, talked to his future niece, tried to get to know her a little better. But Dean, he didn't even make as much as an attempt to get to know his daughter, he just gave short and to the point answers to Annie's questions, avoided any form of conversation at all cost.

Annie and Sam seemed to get along rather well with one another. He asked her about school, what kind of classes she took, and what kind of things she was interested in. And Annie told him about how the majority of her classes she took were honors classes; Honors English, Honors Trigonometry, AP History, etc, etc. Annie had to contain herself to keep from laughing at the look of surprise and excitement pass over her uncle's face. "Are you sure you're _Dean's_ daughter?" Sam asked with a good natured smile.

Sam told Annie about how when he was in school he took mostly honors classes as well. Annie decided not to burst his bubble and not tell him she knew that already. He looked so happy by the fact that there was going to finally be another person in the family that actually wanted to succeed in school, Annie just didn't have the heart to ruin it for him.

Annie also told Sam about her passion for music and old muscle cars, which Sam wasn't the least bit surprised to find out. Annie was so much like Dean; it was only natural that they'd share the same interest in all things loud and fast. Annie also discussed her love of the arts, photography being her forte. She also talked about her undying love for her friends.

"You have friends?" Sam asked.

"Yeah…" Annie replied, looking at him curiously. Sam could have smacked himself when he realized what he was implying. "What, you think I'm some kind of anti-social freak?" Annie asked with a quirked eyebrow and a smirk.

"No, I don't think that at all," Sam said quickly. "I just...," he said, letting his words trail off. "We kind of have to have a home for you to have friends…," Sam said. "The thought of us, Dean especially, living in one place for longer than two weeks…It's kind of unbelievable."

"Well, my mother must've done some amazing things to get Dean to settle down," Annie said.

As soon as the words left her mouth, Annie mentally kicked herself. She had said too much. She just hoped Sam didn't notice her little slip up.

Unfortunately, he did. "Your mother, huh?" Sam asked with a smile. "What's she like?" he asked with interest.

Annie's chest tightened as a longing ache made her heart pound. _I wish I knew_.

She sighed and replied, "I'm sorry. I can't tell you that."

"Oh, come on, it's okay, you can tell me," Sam said.

"No, I can't," Annie said, shaking her head. "I've already said too much. I shouldn't have even mentioned her," she said softly, averting her eyes to the floor.

Sam sighed and nodded his head in understanding.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Sam may have learned more about his future niece, but when it came to the demon that sent Annie 20 years into the past; they were still completely empty handed. Neither of them had learned anything more than what they already knew two weeks ago.

Annie sat in Bobby's kitchen across from Sam, scanning a large book that she'd already read about a million times. It was positioned in her lap as she leaned back on the two rear legs of her chair. Annie wasn't really absorbing anything in the book, she was just reading for the sake of reading. Annie had given up hope that the answer to getting home was in one of Bobby's books about four days ago. And she knew everyone else was thinking the same exact thing, they just didn't want to say it.

Dean stepped into the room, cell phone in his hand as he looked down at the small screen. "Hey, Sam," Dean said, ignoring Annie's presence like usual. Sam looked up from the book he was reading and looked over at his brother. "I just got a text message. Coordinates," Dean said as he turned the phone around for Sam to see the message.

'_Coordinates? What's that supposed to mean?_' Annie thought curiously as her brow furrowed as she saw a knowing look pass across Sam's face.

"From Dad?" Sam asked.

"Who else sends us coordinates?" Dean replied.

Annie tipped the chair back too far and nearly landed flat on her back at the mention of Sam and Dean's Dad. Annie caught herself and forced the chair back on four legs with a loud clatter. She gripped onto the table to not only stabilize herself physically, but mentally.

'_It's 2006... Gramps is still alive_,' Annie thought, awestruck. She hadn't even thought about it. She knew her Grandpa John died sometime in 2007, but the fact that the man that she'd only ever known as a spirit, was very much alive and in the flesh, was baffling to Annie.

Sam and Dean looked over at Annie, eyebrows raised up to their hair lines. "You okay?" Sam asked.

"Uh-huh," Annie said nodding her head quickly, positive that she didn't sound too convincing.

Sam's eyes narrowed as he looked at her, as if he knew she wasn't entirely telling the truth, before turning to his brother. He took Dean's cell phone in his hands and punched in the coordinates on his laptop that sat in front of him to find the exact destination of the coordinates. Dean leaned down and peered over his brother's shoulder at the computer as a map for Greenwood, Mississippi appeared on the screen.

"So what's goin' on in Greenwood?" Dean asked.

Sam didn't say anything in reply, but merely began typing at the computer with a look of concentration on his face. After a moment of Sam typing in things on to his computer and clicking here and there, he finally spoke. "Well, there was the death of a newly married couple at their home in Greenwood. Police say it was a homicide but there was no sign of forced entry, or struggle, and there was no physical evidence of anyone else being at the crime scene. The cops have no leads," Sam explained.

"What else is new?" Dean scoffed with a snort, his aversion for law enforcement palpable.

Annie smirked with amusement. '_Huh, he even hated the cops back in '06_,' Annie mused as she thought back on all the times her father talked about how much he hated the police.

"What's up with the people's house?" Dean asked Sam.

Sam clicked on a few things before saying, "Well it turns out the couple's house was an old 19th century plantation house."

"Sounds like the perfect place for a haunting," Dean said.

Sam looked down at the floor and sighed. He looked up at his brother and said, "Dean, can I talk to you alone for a minute?" With that, Sam stood up from his chair at the table and walked into the next room. Dean followed with a look of confusion on his face.

Once he knew they were out of earshot, Sam turned to face his brother. "Dean, we can't go on this hunt," Sam said quietly.

"Why not?" Dean asked.

"_Why_ _not_?" Sam echoed. "Dean, what about Annie?"

"What about her?" he replied.

A look that was a mixture of disbelief and disgust passed over Sam's face. "What about helping Annie to get her back home? What about protecting her from the thing that sent her here? Dean, we can't just leave her here while we go on some hunt," Sam said, enraged by how his brother was acting towards his future daughter.

"Since when is it _our_ responsibility to baby-sit this kid?" Dean said.

"Since the day she was born and became _your_ daughter," Sam retaliated.

"Which won't be for another five years. As far as I see it, she's not my problem," Dean replied.

Sam gave an incredulous huff and said, "You know, sometimes I really can't believe you."

Sam stepped out of the room and walked down the hallway to the room he and Dean were sharing during their stay at Bobby's house. Little did Sam know, Annie had heard every word that he and Dean had said.

Annie remained seated at the table, her eyes fixed on the page of one of Bobby's old books. A small droplet of water landed on the page. Annie looked at it curiously and touched it with her finger tip. She turned her hand around and looked at it as she grazed the tip of her wet finger with her thumb. Another droplet splashed onto the old pages. It was then that Annie realized that the droplet was not a leak in the ceiling, but rather her own tears. She reached up and touched the wet surface of her cheek. The feeling of tears on her skin was a foreign one for Annie.

Annie hung her head and sighed as she let her eyes fall shut. _Come on, Annie. Get a grip_. She swallowed down her emotions and quickly wiped away the tears on her cheeks to get rid of any evidence that she had lost control for even a second. When Annie finally lifted her head, she saw Dean standing in the door way. Annie's red puffy eyes met Dean's hard green eyes for just a second, before they both looked away. Dean turned around and went back into the other room without saying a single word, while Annie resumed skimming the pages of the book in her lap.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Later that evening, Bobby stepped into his living room to find Annie sitting on the couch, staring off into space. Her face was a blank slate of emotion. Bobby sat down beside Annie, pulling her from her far away thoughts. She glanced over at him for a second, before looking away again.

"You wanna tell me what's on your mind?" Bobby asked. It was more of a statement than anything.

Annie sighed before looking over at Bobby. "Sam and Da—," Annie began, but caught herself before saying the dreaded "D" word. "Sam and _Dean_ got a text message from their Dad earlier. He wants them to go on a hunt," Annie said. "They had a fight earlier… about me. They don't know what they should do with me while they go on the hunt," Annie said softly. Annie pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly as she heaved a deep sigh. "I wish I wasn't such a God damn burden," she said softly before resting her head down on her knees.

Bobby was never one with dealing with emotions, but when it came to those Winchester folk, he felt his emotionally compassionate side come out with ease. He wrapped his arm around Annie shoulders and pulled her closer to him. "Annie, you're not a burden. You're a gift. Those boys just don't know it yet," Bobby's deep husky voice whispered quietly.

- - - - - - - - - -

The next morning, before Annie was up and functioning, Bobby, Sam, and Dean sat around the kitchen table, eating breakfast. "So, I hear you boys got word of a hunt," Bobby said as he buttered a piece of toast.

Dean nodded. "Yeah, it's in Greenwood, Mississippi," Dean said around a mouth full of eggs.

"Are you gonna take it?" Bobby asked.

"Yes," Dean said, but Sam simultaneously said "No."

Bobby looked from Sam and then to Dean, eyebrows raised questioningly. Sam sighed and placed his fork down on the table. "I don't think we should go," Sam told Bobby, but looked at Dean when he said it. He fixed his gaze on Bobby when he said, "We have to help Annie with her situation before we go running off to a hunt."

"We have our own problems to worry about, Sam. _Her _issues are not our problem," Dean said.

Bobby stared at Dean and gave him a hard, disapproving glare. "When are you gonna take your head out of your ass and see that that girl needs you. Annie is your _daughter_, Dean, whether you like it or not. You two are all that girl has now. Would you turn your back on Sam if he needed your help?"

"That's different," Dean retaliated, apparently irritated.

"No, it's not, Dean, not really," Bobby replied. "No matter what you tell yourself, she's still your family and she needs you."

Dean didn't say anything in reply, but merely looked down at his plate and prodded a piece of egg with his fork.

"So what do you think we should do?" Sam asked. He'd always valued Bobby's advice and knew that he would steer him in the right direction.

"Why don't you take her with you?" Bobby suggested before taking a bite of his toast.

"Take her with us? But she's just a rookie," Dean said incredulously.

"Rookie or not, she's a damn good hunter," Bobby replied.

"How do you know?" Dean asked.

"She's got some of the best hunters around for family, hasn't she?" Bobby stated pointedly.

"But what about searching for an answer on how to get Annie back home?" Sam asked.

"I think we all figured out nearly five days ago that the answer to getting Annie home isn't in any of my books," Bobby said.

"Then where is it?" Sam said.

"Honestly… I don't know," Bobby answered. "But don't you worry, I'll keep diggin' and if I find anything, I'll be sure to let you know," he said.

- - - - - - - - -

About an hour after breakfast, Sam and Dean discussed it and came up with the consensus that maybe taking Annie along with them wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Sam and Dean sat in the living room and watched as Annie stepped downstairs after her morning shower. She saw the boys' bags sitting beside the couch and looked at them curiously. "What's going on?" she asked.

Sam and Dean stood up from the sofa and approached Annie. "We're going on a hunt," Sam said.

"Oh, okay," Annie said softly. She figured it was only a matter of time before they gave up on her and moved on with their lives and left. She just didn't think it would be so soon. Annie turned around and went to walk into the kitchen to continue her absolutely useless research.

But she stopped mid-step when she heard Sam say, "But we want you to come with us."

Annie turned around and looked at Sam and Dean. "You do?" she said incredulously.

She watched Sam and Dean look at one another, silently speaking to each other, something Annie had become so accustomed to seeing, and they looked back at her.

"Yeah, we do," Dean said, with a faint sparkle in his eyes.

And for a split second, Annie didn't see Dean Winchester, she saw her Dad.

* * *

**A/N**: Reviews make me a chipper little girl.  
When I see reviews in my inbox, it's almost like seeing Dean Winchester without any clothes on.  
Did I just say that outloud? O.O


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

**A/N**: Hey guys. I know, I said I'd try to do weekly updates, but the past two weeks have been super busy. I do apologize for the long wait. But I promise you, I won't make you wait as long for the next one.

I just wanted to thank you guys for the amazing reviews. I love you all very much for that. :)

Big thanks to the usual crew, **xJazminex** and **silentpixiee**. They rock. :D \m/

* * *

Dean loaded him and Sam's bags into the trunk of the Impala as Annie stepped down the front steps of Bobby's house, a battered old duffel bag in her hand. Sam had found the old duffel bag buried deep within the depths of the cavernous trunk of the Impala. They used to put their weapons in it, but it eventually got too small. So Sam gave the bag to Annie to keep her miniscule possessions inside it. Annie placed her bag in the trunk beside Sam and Dean's much larger bags.

Dean closed the trunk and then the three of them turned to Bobby, who stood in front of his house with them, hands shoved into his pockets as he looked them over.

"Thanks for your help, Bobby," Sam said, stepping up to their old friend and gripping his hand in a firm handshake. Dean gave a nod of his head and shook Bobby's hand as well.

Then Bobby turned to Annie. He cleared his throat and stuck out his hand to shake hers. But Annie looked down at Bobby's hand with a quirked eyebrow and a Dean Winchester smirk. Annie lightly smacked Bobby's offered hand away and wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight embrace.

"Thank you for… _everything_," she said softly so only Bobby could hear her.

At first Bobby was a bit taken aback by the gesture, but then he let out a soft chuckle and returned the hug. "Like I said," he began, as he and Annie released each other from the embrace. "You Winchesters are always welcome in my house, no matter what year you're from."

Dean walked around to the other side of the car and got behind the wheel while Sam folded himself into the passenger seat and Annie crawled into the backseat. The Impala roared to life and the three Winchesters gave one final wave to Bobby before speeding away from Bobby's home, kicking up a few rocks in the process.

Annie leaned back into the familiar leather seats, letting her eyes fall shut as the wind licked her face and the brisk country air filled her lungs. She heaved a content sigh as she opened her eyes and watched Dean cruise down the bare stretch of highway, faintly humming an old Zeppelin tune, and Sam, sitting comfortably in the passenger seat, watching the scenery pass him by. For the first time in two weeks, Annie felt completely at peace; she finally felt like she belonged.

- - - - - - - - - - -

After spending nearly the entire day on the road the previous day, occasionally stopping to eat and use the restroom, Sam, Dean, and Annie finally arrived in the state of Mississippi. The car ride was a relatively quiet one, the closest thing to a conversation being small talk between each of them from time to time. In that time between their poor excuses for conversations, Annie had had a lot of time to think things over about the hunt.

"So what makes you think the place is haunted?" Annie asked Dean as she broke the ever growing silence between the three of them, looking at him through the review mirror as he drove down the highway.

"Huh?" Dean said.

"You said that you thought the place we're going to is haunted. Why?" she said with interest.

Dean sighed with irritation and rolled his eyes. "The place is an old plantation house. Of course it's haunted. Not to mention the people died an awfully violent death," Dean said condescendingly.

"Looks can be deceiving, Dean," Annie stated.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked looking back at Annie through the review mirror.

"Well just because we have the same eyes and the same last name doesn't mean I'm your sister," she replied pointedly. "Just because a house _looks_ haunted, doesn't mean that it is."

"So what, you don't think this place is haunted?" Dean said, his voice raising slightly in volume and getting a little sharper.

"I don't know yet. Let me get back to you on that once we've dug a little deeper into the history of the house," Annie replied.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he mumbled as he turned his full attention back to the barren stretch of highway.

Sam sat in the passenger seat, and looked over at Dean curiously. He glanced into his side view mirror back at Annie, a look of tenacity and triumph across her face. And then Sam looked back over at his brother again, and suddenly it clicked. He knew exactly what Annie was doing. She was bored, too many hours stuck in the back seat of the car with nothing to do. She was picking a fight with Dean, poking and prodding; criticizing everything he said and did until he was close to snapping. Sam turned his attention back to the corn field they drove past and smirked with amusement. He used to do the exact same thing to _his_ Dad when _he_ was a kid.

Sam thought back on those teenaged years when he was out to picking a fight with just about anyone, but no one more than his father. By that time in his life, he knew exactly what to say and how and when to say it to make his Dad mad, but not mad enough to start a shouting match or get him grounded. And after being trapped in the car long enough, pissing people off was just another road trip game.

Sam grinned. It looked like Dean wasn't the only one that influenced Annie's little antics.

- - - - - - - - - -

Sam, Dean and Annie rolled into Greenwood, Mississippi. It was just like all the other back woods towns they'd seen before. They decided that before they'd hit the library and do some research or go check out the house, the three of them would stop at the local diner for dinner.

The three of them sat in a booth near the front of the diner, conveniently placed in front of where the Impala was parked. Sam and Annie sat beside each other across from Dean, discussing the hunt, while Dean distractedly peered out the window at his car, making sure no one parked to close or hit his baby. '_Some things _never_ change_,' Annie thought.

"So have you looked into the history of the house? Is there any reason to believe that the place is haunted?" Annie asked Sam as he pulled out his laptop from his bag and placed it on the table.

"From what I found online, not really. All the people that I could find that had died there died from natural causes or it was just an accident. But I only got as far back as the early 1900s. It's a pretty old house, dating all the way back to pre-Civil War era. I think if we check out the local library we might be able to find some of the old death certificates and obituaries from back when the house was first built," Sam explained.

Annie nodded. "So your Dad sent you guys here?" Annie asked curiously.

Sam nodded. "Yeah, he sends us coordinates from time to time. Points us in the direction of a hunt he wants us to take care of," he said.

"Where is he now?" Annie asked.

"Your guess is as good as ours," Dean replied, breaking eye contact with his beloved Impala and joining the conversation.

Annie looked at him with confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Our Dad's been MIA for the past couple of months. He won't answer our phone calls, and the closest we come to hearing from him are these text messages," Sam said.

Annie processed the information. Something about it sounded vaguely familiar. Suddenly realization hit her. This was Gramps' big disappearance of '06. "Oh, I think I remember hearing about this," Annie said thoughtfully. "This is when Gramps just up and takes off for like a year."

"_Gramps_?" Dean said with an eyebrow quirked incredulously as he and Sam shared amused glances.

Annie laughed softly and rolled her eyes with mock exasperation. "Fine. _John_," she said.

"Gramps…" Annie heard Sam mutter beside her with an amused huff.

"What? It's what I call him," Annie said defensively.

"I know, but… _Gramps_?" Sam said. Sam was able to get past the fact that Dean became a Dad someday, and him, an uncle. But his father, a _Grandfather_. Now that's just weird… and funny all at the same time.

"Well, I can't call him Grandpa," Annie explained. "'Cause "Grandpa" makes me think of a little old man with white hair pushing around a walker with tennis balls on the end of it. And Grandfather is too formal. So, Gramps is the most fitting," Annie said, finishing off her explanation with a firm nod.

Sam shook his head and laughed at Annie and her (rather accurate) thinking. Even Dean smirked slightly.

Annie sat at the table, holding the straw of her drink between her thumb and forefinger, stirring her soda slowly. "He's not gonna be here, is he?" Annie said, reluctantly dismissing the notion of meeting her Grandfather for the first time as a person, not a spirit.

Sam and Dean look at one another for a moment before looking back at Annie. "Probably not," Sam said truthfully.

Annie nodded her head wordlessly as a sign of understanding, and Sam couldn't help but note the slight look of disappointment pass across her face.

- - - - - - - - - -

The sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon when the Impala pulled in front of the old Mississippi plantation house. Sam, Dean and Annie got out of the car and gazed at the extremely large building. Despite the fact that the house had been remodeled and a fresh coat of paint had been applied to the exterior to spruce up the place, there was still something slightly dark and ominous about the place.

The three of them walked around to the trunk of the car. Dean unlocked the hatched and opened up the hidden arsenal compartment. Annie gazed across the stash of weaponry. Some of the weapons she recognized from her time, even though they looked significantly newer and didn't have that aged look of something that had been used hard and often. Annie noticed the compartment looked far more cluttered than she remembered from her time too. But then she realized that was probably because Sam and Dean didn't have a house to keep some of the things that weren't used very often.

That was when a sad realization hit her. Sam and Dean didn't have a home. The _Impala_ was the closest thing to a home that they had now. They didn't have a place where they could lay their heads after a long and stressful day. They didn't have a place they could go to as means of safety and protection. They were nomads that migrated from motel room to motel room, going where ever the next hunt led them.

Annie had known that her Dad and Uncle had spent a majority of their childhood, as well as their adult lives, going from one crappy motel room to the next, but she could never really imagine what it was like for them. The two men she knew had always had a home to go to no matter what. But Sam and Dean, they didn't have a place to call home. The only thing they had was the car and each other. It only further showed Annie how messed up their lives were.

Dean reached into the trunk and pulled out a sawed off shotgun loaded with rock salt and handed one to Sam, as well as taking one for himself. Dean reached up and went to close the trunk but stopped when he heard Annie clear her throat to get his attention. Dean looked up at Annie, irritation practically radiating from her form. "What?" he said with confusion.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Annie said.

A look of contemplation came over Dean's face, before looking back at her. "No," he said shaking his head.

Annie nodded her head slowly, as she crossed her arms across her chest, a bitter grin playing on her face. "I don't get a gun?" she said.

"_You_ want a gun?" Dean said.

"It'd be nice," Annie said sarcastically.

Dean laughed softly to himself. He looked at Annie with an obviously condescending and fake smile across his face. "Look, you're just a kid. I don't think you'd be able to handle a job like this. Why don't you just stay in the car?" he said.

"_Excuse_ me?" Annie said incredulously. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it was _me_ who saved _your_ ass from that homicidal ghost back in New York," Annie said angrily. "I am _more_ than capable of handling myself on a job like this," Annie said. Annie held out her hand and said, "Give me a gun."

Dean glanced down at her open palm, one eyebrow raised questioningly. "And what are you gonna do if I don't?" Dean replied, standing straighter and putting on an intimidating appearance. But that look never worked on Annie and she dismissed it quickly with a dramatic eye roll.

Annie reached into the inside pocket of her jacket and pulled out the lock pick set that her Dad had given her for her birthday one year. She kept it with her wherever she went; ya never know when you gotta pick a lock.

Annie held up the lock pick set for Dean to see. "I'll just pick the lock of the trunk and get one anyway," Annie said with a smirk and a quick flick of an eyebrow.

Dean sighed and reached into the trunk, grabbing another shotgun. He reluctantly handed it to her. He slammed the trunk shut with more force than necessary and when he stepped past Sam towards the house, he cast his brother a quick glance that blatantly said, "This kid is getting on my nerves." Sam tried his best to stifle his amused smirk. His brother really didn't understand that Annie was just being a regular teenager, pushing any authority figure to the brink of anger.

The old wooden boards creaked and groaned under their feet as they ascended the front porch stairs. Since the police had declared the home an active crime scene and the previous owners were dead, they didn't have to worry about anyone coming home or barging in while they tried to investigate the house. Dean turned the door knob, but discovered it to be locked. He turned towards Annie and said with an outstretched hand, "Well, since you have it handy, give me your lock pick." Annie complied and slapped her lock pick set into Dean's open palm. He quickly unlocked the front door with ease, and let the door swing open smoothly.

Dean stood up and gazed into the dark house along side Sam and Annie. Dean looked over at Annie. "Ladies first," he said, waving his arm in front of him in a mock gentlemanly manner. "Unless…," he added, "You're scared. Then you can go wait in the car."

Annie clenched her jaw tightly, biting back a smart remark that she was sure would get her locked in the trunk, and stared at Dean, her green eyes flashing with anger. "Give me your damn flashlight," she bit out.

Dean handed Annie his flashlight. She ducked under the police tape and stepped into the dark, old house, Dean stepping in after her. Sam clicked on his own flashlight as he followed suit.

The two beams of light swept over the room as they stepped into the den, illuminating the knick knacks and pictures that adorned the room. Annie looked down at a picture of the young couple on their wedding day. The man stood with his wife, looking quite handsome in a traditional tux and his short hair spiked up slightly. He had his arms wrapped around his wife's waist from behind, both of them grinning broadly as they stood in front of a picturesque country side with trees blossoming with small pink flowers in the background. The young woman wore a plain white dress that looked beautiful against her glowing ivory skin and her dark flowing brown hair. The picture vaguely reminded Annie of the picture of her Dad and her Mom on their wedding day. In both pictures the couples looked so undeniably _happy_.

It was jobs like this that Annie found so incredibly tragic. A young married couple at the height of their life and relationship, who's lives were seemingly perfect, to have it all taken away from them in an instant all because of a spirit with a vengeance or some other wrathful supernatural being. It just wasn't fair.

But it gave Annie all the more reason to want to waste that sucker.

"This is a big house, but it'll go a hell of a lot faster if we split up and searched the place," Dean said.

"Yeah," Sam agreed. "Annie, you can come with me."

Annie nodded. She tossed the flashlight over to Dean, who caught it easily, and followed Sam upstairs as Dean searched the rest of the first floor for anything out of the ordinary or would indicate a haunting.

Sam and Annie stepped down a long hallway. Bedrooms and closets were on either side of the hallway so they decided to check each one. Sam and Annie checked the room on their left. They stepped inside to find the large bedroom still filled with some of the old 20th century furniture was still there. A canopy bed sat in the center of the room as well as an arm chair and large Victorian dresser with a mirror attached to it. Large white sheets had been tossed on all the furniture that gave them each an eerie, ominous shape when the flashlights hit them. A thick blanket of dust covered the furniture coverings and the floor, which Annie and Sam kicked up as they walked across the room, causing Annie's eyes to itch and Annie to sneeze. After finding nothing suspicious, Sam and Annie stepped out of the room.

Once Sam stepped into the hallway he turned to face Annie. "Look, I'm sorry about the way Dean's been acting. Don't take it personally," he said sympathetically.

Annie sighed. "Sam, don't apologize for your _brother's_ stubborn and idiotic ways. It's not your fault. It's far from it," Annie said, giving Sam a faint reassuring smile. Sam returned the smile and turned to continue down the hall and search the rest of the rooms.

Annie went to follow, but suddenly stopped. A chill ran down her spine as she felt an icy hand on her shoulder. Before she could say anything, she felt her self being dragged back into the room she'd just left, her shotgun slipping from her hands and clattering to the hallway floor in the process. The door to the room swung shut with a loud bang. Annie ran forward and tugged on the doorknob, but it was to no avail; it wouldn't budge. Annie rapped on the door loudly with her fists as she continued to try to pry the door open. "Sam!" Annie called, hoping he would hear her on the other side.

Sam had heard the shot gun hit the floor and turned around in time to see Annie being pulled into the room by an invisible force and the door slamming shut. He ran to the door, ramming his shoulder into it to try and get it open, but it wouldn't even move. Sam heard Annie frantically calling his name from the other side. "Annie!" Sam yelled driving his shoulder into the door once again.

"The door won't open!" she shouted tugging and pulling as hard as she could on the door knob of the room. Annie suddenly felt the temperature in the room plummet. She saw her breath come out in misty white puffs of steam. "Shit," she muttered to herself. That couldn't be good. "Get me the hell out of here, Sam!" Annie shouted as she began to pound on the door.

"I'm trying, Ann," Sam replied as he continued to hit the door with all his might.

Just then, Dean came bounding upstairs. "What's going on?" he asked with concern as he saw his brother frantically trying to break the door down.

"Something's got Annie trapped in there," Sam said.

Just then, Annie's frantic rapping stopped and an eerie silence filled the air. Sam and Dean paused and looked at one another. This most definitely was _not_ good.

* * *

**A/N**: You know the drill. Reviews make me happy. :) 


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 

**A/N**: Hey guys! What a nice day for you guys, you get a new episode of Supernatural (which: OMG! ROFL!LMAO!) _and_ a new chapter of _Time& Confusion_. Awesome. :D

I just wanted to give a big thanks to my back-up beta **silentpixiee**, who is covering for my beta **xJazminex** while she is seemingly still dealing with technichal difficulties. :( Thanks a bunch guys, you are awesome!

By the way, everyone should go give **silentpixiee** the bitchface of envy because she gets to see our beloved boys, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. So not fair. But I love her dearly and am quite happy for her despite my imense envy. lol.

I also wanted to thank you guys for all the amazing reviews (and there were so many of them too:D). Thank you so very very much. It's good to know that people enjoy the stuff that comes out of my head. :)

I hope you enjoy the chapter.

* * *

_Just then, Annie's frantic rapping stopped and an eerie silence filled the air. Sam and Dean paused and looked at one another. This most definitely was _not_ good. _

The eerie silence was suddenly replaced by the sound of furniture scraping across the floor. A faint yelp was heard from the other side of the door. Sam and Dean continued to put as much force as they could against the old wooden door, but nothing seemed to be working.

Annie had felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She had the immense feeling of being watched. She ceased her frantic pounding against the door and slowly turned around, dreading what she might see. But when she turned around, she saw no one, but that feeling of being watched didn't go away. Suddenly, the large Victorian dresser slid across the dusty floor as if a hidden force was pushing it towards her. Before Annie could get out of the way, the dresser slid hard into Annie, knocking her to the dusty wooden floor. She quickly scrambled to her feet. Out of the corner of her eye, Annie thought she saw someone walking by the window sill. She turned but there was still no one there. Suddenly, a light breeze swept through the room, despite the fact that no windows were open. The long floor length white lace curtains billowed in the breeze. The curtains eerily took the shape of a person as a figure glided smoothly beneath them.

Annie then turned around when she heard the mirror that was attached to the Victorian dresser swing forward on its old wooden axis. Annie jumped back just as the mirror fell from the dresser and to the floor with a crash, shattering into a million tiny little pieces.

That feeling of being watched came over Annie once again. She turned around, and because of the darkness of the room, she saw a dark shadowy figure standing not more than a few inches away from her. Annie took a cautious step backwards. But the figure advanced on her and shoved her backwards. Annie fell back onto the floor, catching herself on the million shards of glass on the floor.

As soon as Annie landed on the floor, Sam and Dean broke through the door, charging into the room, guns blazing. Dean caught sight of the dark figure and fired two shots of rock salt at it, causing the figure to disintegrate into thin air. Sam ran over to Annie and helped her to her feet. "Annie, are you okay?" he asked with concern.

"Yeah, I think so," she replied. Annie winced as she looked down at her bloody palms. A few shards of glass had gotten lodged in the palms of Annie's hands when she fell on the floor that was littered with the broken glass from the mirror.

Dean walked up to Sam and Annie. He looked at Annie and said, "So, still think this place isn't haunted?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Annie sat at the table of the motel room that they had checked into, while Dean got the first aid kit from the trunk of the car. Sam sat on the other side of the table doing research on his laptop. Dean stepped into the room and sat down beside Annie at the table. He opened up the first aid kit and pulled out a pair of tweezers. "We gotta get that glass out of your hand before we do anything," he said, clicking the tweezers together in his hand as he held them up. Annie grimaced and sighed. She was afraid he was going to say that. "Let's just get it over with. The longer we wait, the more likely it is to get infected so just give me your hand and then I can clean it up," Dean said.

Annie sighed again and reluctantly held her left hand out for Dean. He took Annie's small hand in his own and inspected the wound. There was a fairly large piece of glass that was visibly sticking out of Annie's hand. Dean grabbed onto the piece of glass with the tweezers and tried to pull it out slowly. Dean paused when he heard Annie let out a faint whimper. He looked up at Annie who had her head bowed and her eyes screwed shut. He didn't want to hurt her more, but he had to in order to get the glass out, so he continued to pry the piece of glass from her hand. With one more tug, Dean was able to get the large piece of glass out of Annie's palm. Dean heard a sharp intake of breath from Annie when the glass had been removed. Dean gave Annie an apologetic look as he placed the bloody shard of glass onto a wash cloth.

Upon further inspection, Dean found that all the glass had been removed from Annie's left hand so he pulled a bottle of peroxide from the first aid kit to clean it. He twisted off the cap and picked up another washcloth. He placed it underneath Annie's hand as he poured the rubbing alcohol on her wound. Annie gasped loudly and yanked her hand out of Dean's grasp. "Ow!" she exclaimed, clutching her hand to her chest.

"It's just rubbing alcohol," Dean said.

"It _burns_," Annie retaliated, sounding not at all like the mature sixteen year old that she was and more like a four year old.

"I have to clean in out, Ann," Dean said. He was trying his best to keep his short patience level and even shorter temper in check, especially when Annie was injured, but she wasn't making that very easy. Dean peered into that indignant look in Annie's eyes and said, "Oh come on, don't be such a baby."

"I'm not a baby," Annie snapped.

"Then give me your hand and let me clean it out," Dean replied forcefully.

"Fine," Annie sighed, slowly outstretching her hand so Dean could finish cleaning it.

Sam hid behind his laptop, peering over the top of it from time to time, watching Dean and Annie interact with one another. They were very interesting to watch to say the least; that is when they weren't arguing with each other. Sam watched with interest as Dean gingerly cleaned out Annie's wounds and bandaged them up. Sam noted the way Dean seemed to pause cautiously in his work when ever Annie let out a faint gasp or involuntarily jerked away in pain. Dean seemed less hostile towards Annie ever since she got hurt and was a bit more caring towards her. Sam couldn't help but wonder if seeing Annie hurt had ever so slightly brought out the inner Dad in his brother.

Sam didn't think that being a Dad was something that would be very difficult for his brother. In fact, Dean was more of a Dad to Sam than his own father was. Dean had been playing the big brother and the father figure ever since Sam could remember. Dean was always there to help him and protect him when his father wasn't. So, Dean as a father? It may have been hard to get used to but it definitely wasn't hard to believe.

Dean pulled the glass from Annie's other hand and cleaned and bandaged that hand as well, placing square pads of gauze on the wounds and then wrapping white gauze around the palms of Annie's hands. Dean cut the strip of gauze from the rest of the roll with a scissors and then taped down the end with a piece of medical tape.

Annie inspected the bandage job while Dean packed up the items he'd used back into the first aid kit. "Thanks," she said, giving Dean a faint smile. Dean merely nodded in reply.

"So what happened back there?" Sam asked Annie.

"More importantly, did you get a good look at Casper the Blood Thirsty Ghost?" Dean added.

Annie sighed and shook her head. "No, I didn't see it. It was too dark," Annie said disappointedly. She turned her attention over to Sam and answered his question. "One minute we were leaving that room, the next I was being yanked back in. The door slammed shut on it's own and then the room got really cold. Next thing I know this big, _heavy_ dresser slammed into me, knocking me to the floor. When I got up, I saw the outline of this person walking by the window. Then the mirror broke and the thing shoved me to the floor, onto the glass," Annie explained, lifted her bandaged hands as proof of her battle with the mysterious ghost. "The only thing I definitely know about the spirit is that it was a man," Annie added.

"How do you know?" Dean asked curiously.

"Because the thing was at _least_ six foot and it was strong," Annie said. "Whether they're a ghost or not, I never met a _girl_ that strong or tall before," she added pointedly.

"Unless you count Sam," Annie and Dean said simultaneously, even down to the same tone of voice and mocking facial expression.

"Great," Sam huffed exasperatedly, rolling his eyes to the heavens. "It's like having _two _Deans," he said.

Annie laughed softly, and cast a sideways glance at Dean who looked a little surprised at him and Annie's Doublemint Twins moment.

"Oh come on Sammy, admit it," Annie said, standing up from her place at the table. "You just _love_ havin' me around," Annie said with a smirk and a playful nudge to Sam's shoulder. Annie walked over to the mini fridge and grabbed a bottle of water to drink.

"Oh yeah," Sam said less than an enthusiastically, before giving her a wink and a grin.

"Alright," Dean said, interrupting Sam and Annie's exchange. "We need to look up all the men that are six foot and over, that lived in that house and that have died."

Sam sighed. "I already looked into the history of the house, man, all I got as far as deaths in the house was a little old lady that choked to death on a chicken bone while she was eating dinner and a guy that had a heart attack," Sam said.

"Well what about the guy that had a heart attack? There's gotta be something more to the story there," Dean said.

"I don't think so. The man died in his sleep. There's nothing violent or vengeful spirit worthy behind that story," Sam replied.

Annie stood in the room as she listened to Sam and Dean's theories and thought up some theories of her own. She couldn't help but grin around her bottle as she took a sip of water. Sam and Dean were so… _youthful_ when they spoke to each other. Sure, her Dad may not have been the most _mature _adult that she'd met, he wasn't even that old either, but when he or Sam spoke, there was a sense of wisdom and intelligence in their words that one could only possess after being around for a little while and witnessing their fair share of life changing experiences. But with Sam and Dean there was something almost _child-like_ and dare I say _innocent_ in how they interacted with each other, as well as others. It was an interesting contrast between the two men Annie had known her whole life, and the two men she'd just become acquainted with, that she was sure to store in the back of her mind with all the other similarities and differences she'd noticed.

"What if the person wasn't an actual _owner_ of the house," Annie said.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"I mean, the house is really old. Pre-Civil War era, right?" Annie said. Sam nodded. "And the house is _huge_. I would bet anything that the place used to have slaves working on the property," she said. "What if the spirit was a slave?"

Sam sat with a contemplative look on his face, nodding his head slowly, agreeing with Annie's theory. "Blacks were viewed as property back then. I doubt that they kept tabs on every slave that died."

"Exactly," Annie stated.

"If he died, or, if he was _murdered_, it probably went completely unnoticed just because he was a slave," Sam said.

"It'd be perfect grounds for vengeful spirit territory," Dean said. "Well," he said, clapping his hands enthusiastically as he stood up and grabbed his jacket. "Sam and I will go do some research to see if we can find out who our Slave Spirit is, and you," Dean said, turning to Annie. "Will stay here."

"What? Why?" Annie exclaimed incredulously.

"Because the last time we took you somewhere with us, you nearly got yourself killed," Dean said scornfully. "You're stayin' here."

Annie, unable to keep in her frustration and anger towards the way Dean was acting towards in any longer, slammed her bottle of water down on the table forcefully, glaring daggers at Dean. "Okay, I get it, you don't like me. And I'm fine with that. But the least you could do is not be such an ass to me," Annie bit out fiercely. Fearing that she might do or say anything more that she might seriously regret, Annie stormed out of the motel room, slamming the door closed behind her.

Dean stood rooted to the spot. The words that Annie had said slowly began to sink in. She thought that he didn't like her? Sure, Dean admitted that he may not have been the nicest person in the world towards her, but was he really mean enough to make her think he didn't _like_ her?

"She's right, man," Sam said, breaking Dean from his reverie. "You've been a complete ass towards her ever since we met her," he said. "You should go talk to her," Sam suggested.

Dean sighed. He was afraid Sam was going to say that. "Do I have to?" he said reluctantly.

"Yeah, Dean, ya do," Sam replied. With a jerk of his head towards the door, Sam said, "Go and talk to your daughter."

Dean heaved a sigh, and reluctantly stepped out of the room. He didn't want Annie to continue thinking that he didn't like her, but he didn't want to _talk_ about it. Talking things out wasn't his kind of thing.

As he stepped into the cool night air, Annie wasn't anywhere in sight. But then Dean looked down the stretch of other motel rooms and saw Annie sitting on a bench beneath a dim yellowish light bulb that was fastened to the wall. Dean breathed in the crisp, cool air, and shoved his hands in his pockets as he made his way toward Annie.

When Dean approached the bench, Annie didn't even so much as look up at him or show any notion of acknowledging his presence, she just stared off into the dark parking lot of the Sunset Motel. Dean sat down on the bench beside Annie. For a moment, the two sat together in silence, neither one of them moving or so much as making an attempt to speak to one another. Finally, Dean broke the uncomfortable silence between them by letting out a deep sigh.

"Maybe you're right when you said I was being an ass," Dean said.

"_Maybe_?" Annie retaliated with her eyebrows raised and a fierce edge to her voice as she gave him an icy glare.

"Okay," Dean said with defeat. "I was a complete jerk. I said some pretty cruel things. And I'm… I'm sorry," he managed to get out. Annie looked up at Dean, saw the genuineness in his eyes, and nodded her head as means of acceptance of his apology.

"But how could you _possibly_ think that I don't like you?" Dean said. Annie didn't miss the pain and the concern in his eyes when he asked her that.

"I thought it was pretty obvious," Annie said softly, looking out at the minimal amount of cars parked in the parking lot.

Dean sighed and hung his head slightly. How could he be so insensitive and clueless to make Annie think that he didn't like her or accept her? "Yeah, I guess I can see how you would think that," Dean said. "For the record," he said as Annie turned and gazed up at him. "I think you're a pretty cool kid."

Annie raised her eyebrows as a faint smile tugged at the corner of her lips. A slight gleam sparkled in Annie's green eyes that Dean hadn't seen before until now, as she said, "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," Dean replied with a smile. "I gotta admit, ya got style."

"Well, of course I do," Annie said with a grin that mirrored Dean's down to the very last dimple. "I am a Winchester after all."

Dean couldn't help but let out a hearty chuckle. Oh, Annie was _so_ his kid. And he was glad because he wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

**A/N**: You guys should know what to do by now. :) 


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

**A/N**: Hey guys! Hope you're all doing well. And I hope you guys had a Happy Thanksgiving (the ones from America, that is. lol)

Anyways, I just wanted to give a big thanks to my dear friend **silentpixiee** for staying up late with me to wait for the finished product of this chapter and made me finish it, when she should've been sleeping lol. Thanks my dear. I love you so.

And I also wanted to give a big thanks you the lovely reviewers out there. You seriously have no idea how happy it makes me to see review alerts in my inbox. :D

**Spoilers**: I just wanted to let you guys know that there is a slight spoiler alert for the Edgar Allan Poe short story _The Black Cat_. Sorry to those who haven't read the story, but honestly, who _hasn't_ read that story? I know I've been forced to read it about a million times. But that's not to say its a bad story, cause it's actually quite good.

**Disclaimer**: I _wish_ I owned Supernatural. I really do. But I'd probably be out on the picket lines right now if i did. But sadly the only thing I own is Annie.

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"Oh my God, I swear, I'm going to throw this freaking piece of crap out the window," Annie said in an exasperated whisper as she grew more and more impatient at the old library computer that sat in front of her. The thought that at one point in time, it took computers longer than 10 seconds to load a page had never occurred to Annie; she just thought that technology was always quick and easy. She had never been more wrong in her life.

Sam, who was sitting beside Annie at another computer doing his own research, looked over at her with confusion. "What's wrong?"

"This computer is so freaking slow. It's like I've been put in the Stone Age or something. I've been sitting here staring at the screen for a whole _minute_ and nothing has happened," Annie replied impatiently.

Sam couldn't help but smirk with amusement. Annie pretty much had the same amount of patience Dean had, which was little to none. "A _whole minute_? Wow!" Sam said with mock astonishment.

Annie glared daggers at Sam, but there was something insincere and derisive about the look. "Shut up, Sammy," Annie grumbled as she turned her attention back to the screen. She sighed as she saw the loading bar had only moved about a centimeter forward and still had more than half way to go. "Maybe there's something wrong with it, like a virus or something," Annie said as she whacked the side of the monitor with her hand and it wobbled back and forth slightly.

Annie went in for another kill, but Sam quickly grabbed her hand. "First off, library computers are _always_ slow. Secondly, if it had a virus, hitting the monitor isn't going to help," Sam said.

"Oh, I know," Annie replied. "That was just for me," she said, flashing Sam a grin.

Sam just sighed and rolled his eyes because there was one of those eerie similarities between Annie and Dean again. It really was starting to freak him out on how much they were alike. And no matter what Sam said to either of them about it, they both denied their likeness to one another. But at least Bobby agreed with him; it made him feel a little better, and a little less crazy.

Dean rounded the corner of one of the aisles of books he was scanning and headed over to where Sam and Annie were sitting. "How's it coming over here?" Dean asked, leaning against Annie's desk, looking down and his brother and future daughter.

Annie looked up at Dean, a look of frustration and impatience written across her face and said through gritted teeth, "Slow." Dean glanced over at Sam. Sam just rolled his eyes and smirked as he shook his head. "Okay, it's going slow for _me_," Annie said catching Sam's expression out of the corner of her eye. "I'm used to everything being practically instant. Technology is so much more advanced in my time. I'm just not used to using these ancient computers," Annie explained.

"Ancient!" Sam scoffed. "Annie, these computers are practically brand new."

"Not to me they aren't," Annie replied. "In fact," she added thoughtfully. "I'm pretty sure I saw a computer just like this in a museum once."

"A Museum? What, you hang out at museums?" Dean said incredulously.

"Field trip," she replied simply. "It was an excuse to get out of school for a day."

"What museum did you go to?" Sam asked with interest.

"I'm not telling," Annie replied.

"What? Why?" Dean asked.

"Because if I tell you what museum I went to, then you'll be able to figure out where I live, which means you'll know where you live someday, and it could change the future or something like that," Annie explained.

Dean's brow furrowed as he looked down at Annie. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"Yes I am," Annie said, with a nod of her head. "Look, there are just some things I can't tell you because if you know certain things, it could change the future. Now more so than ever, now that you know who I am," she said. Annie saw the look of incredulity upon Dean's face and sighed. "You probably don't get it, I doubt you ever will. But I like my life and everything in it, the way it is, and I want it to stay that way."

Dean looked at Annie for a moment. He was surprised by the fact that despite Annie's young age, she was a rather wise young woman. She had an intelligence and perceptiveness that ranked up with some of the strongest and smartest people he had ever known. But Dean noted that over time each of them had had some remarkable and tragic things happen to them. And Dean couldn't help but wonder if there was a tragedy in Annie's past to cause her to be the way she was; that had caused her to grow up much sooner than she should have. Much like he and Sam.

Dean sighed and nodded his head in understanding. "Alright," he said. "Well, we better get back to work," Dean said as he stood up to his full height.

Annie nodded and turned her attention back to the computer screen in front of her.

After about three hours of nonstop research, Annie finally gave up. She hadn't been able to find a single thing in regards to a slave dying in the old plantation house. She was beginning to give up hope that they'd find anything at all. And worst of all, the slowness of the computer was riding on Annie's last nerve. She stood up from the desk and said to Sam as she stretched her stiff muscles, "I'm gonna go see how Dean's doing before I lose what little patience I have left."

Sam laughed softly as he nodded and continued with his research.

Annie walked past aisles and aisles of book shelves until she finally found Dean standing in one, scanning the pages of a large book of records from the 1800s. She walked over to him and leaned lightly against the book shelf as she said, "How's research coming?"

Dean looked up at Annie and said with a sigh, "Slow." Annie nodded her head in understanding. "How bout you?" he asked.

"Same," Annie replied.

"You or Sam find anything?" he asked.

"Nope," Annie said shaking her head.

Dean sighed with frustration. "Wonderful," he muttered sardonically under his breath.

"So I take it you haven't found anything either," Annie stated.

"No," Dean said reluctantly. "Not a single thing."

"Well, keep looking. You're bound to find something," Annie said encouragingly, despite the fact that she didn't feel all that hopeful.

Annie turned and went to step out of the aisle of books, but stopped when Dean beckoned her back.

"Wait," he said, staring down at the page, but waving his hand for Annie to come over. "I think I found something."

Annie stepped over to stand beside him. Dean pointed to an entry on the page and read it in aloud for her, "It says that in 1847 five slaves were sold to the McClellan plantation house."

"McClellan…," Annie said thoughtfully. "Weren't they one of the previous owners of the house?"

"Yeah," Dean replied. "And then it says that about a year after the slaves were bought, one ran away. They sent out a search party for it, but he was never found."

"Ran away, huh?" Annie said with one eyebrow quirked. "Why do I get the feeling that that's a load of crap?"

Dean chuckled and nodded his head for her to follow him. They both stepped out of the row of book shelves and walked over to where Sam was sitting in front of a computer. "Hey Sam, check it out. I think we found something," Dean said, laying the book down on a near by table. Sam stood up and Dean showed his brother what he had discovered.

"Hmm," Sam hummed thoughtfully. He turned around and sat down in front of the computer. He typed in some things and clicked the mouse here and there until he had found what he was looking for. "I searched for the McClellans in the library database to see if they have any records or information on the family," Sam explained as he clicked on a few more things.

Sam continued to scroll through pages on the computer and clicked on pictures here and there. As Sam clicked from one picture to the next, something caught Annie's attention. "Wait," she said resting her hand on Sam's shoulder to get his attention. "Go back." Sam complied and went back to the picture that was previously on the screen. "No, that's not it," Annie said, finding that it wasn't what she was looking for. "Keep going," she said. Sam went back to two more pictures before Annie found it. "There," Annie said pointing to the screen. Sam stopped and he, Dean, and Annie stared at the picture on the computer monitor. It was an old, fuzzy, black and white picture of the plantation house back when the McClellans owned it. Annie read the caption beneath the picture that said, "Taken 1847".

"1847," Annie muttered to herself.

Sam glanced over his shoulder at Dean, who looked down at Sam simultaneously, and then turned his attention back to Annie as they both watched her curiously. They could practically see the gears in her mind turning as she was slowly putting together the puzzle pieces.

"Go to the next picture," Annie instructed.

Sam did as he was told and clicked over to the next picture. It was another picture of the plantation house that almost looked exactly the same as the one before. However, this one looked a bit clearer than the one before due to the fact that this picture was taken about a year previous from the other one. Annie gazed at the picture for a moment before a look of realization and a satisfied smiled spread across her face.

"What is it?" Dean said, noticing the sudden change in her behavior.

"Let's see who can spot the difference," Annie said with a smirk that made her green eyes sparkle with pride.

"What do you mean?" Sam said with confusion.

"Look at this picture and then look at the one before it," Annie said.

Sam did so, clicking back to the previous picture, and then going back to the other. Dean leaned down and peered over his brother's shoulder as they both studied the pictures for a moment. Then suddenly, Sam found it. "The shed," he said after spotting the subtle difference of the very similar pictures. In the more recent photo, far in the distance a small tool shed could be spotted in the background.

"You got it," Annie said with a smile as she pointed her finger at Sam and clicked her tongue. Annie leaned down and tapped the monitor with her finger where the shed was located. "That shed wasn't there the year before," Annie explained. "This picture was taken 1848. Around the same time the slave supposedly 'ran away'," Annie said, standing back up and looking at Sam and Dean. "The shed's still there. I remember seeing it when we stopped by the place last night," she said.

"Yeah, me too," Sam said nodding his head as he remembered the run down old shed he'd spotted on the edge of the property.

"So you think the body is buried under the shed?" Dean asked.

Annie shrugged. "I don't know about you guys, but it seems like a very likely place to hide a body," she said pointedly.

"She makes a good point, Dean," Sam stated.

Sensing Dean's uncertainty, Annie said, "Hey, you got any better ideas; feel free to share with the class."

Dean shook his head and said, "No, I got nothin'."

"Then what's the problem?" Annie asked as they all gathered their things and started to head towards the exit of the library.

"I don't know. It's just…" Dean began but let his thoughts taper off as they stepped down the front steps of the library and out into the fading sunlight.

"What?" Annie said, nudging Dean's arm lightly with her elbow as they walked beside each other.

"It just seems unlikely to me," Dean said. "I mean, the shed was built near the front of the house. Why would the guy bury a body under something that's clearly visible to everyone," Dean said as they approached the Impala and opened the driver side door.

"I don't know," Annie said, contemplating Dean's thoughts. "Maybe it's kinda like the _Black Cat_ thing," she said as she got in the backseat of the car.

Dean got in behind the wheel and let the car roar to life as Sam got in the passenger seat, but turned around to face Annie before pulling out of the parking spot. "_Black Cat_ thing?" he said with confusion.

"You know, the old Edgar Allan Poe story, _The Black Cat_?" Annie said. "A guy whose gone crazy, kills his wife and then buries her body in the foundation of his house and seals it up so it looks like he never tore it apart. But when the cops go looking for the guy's missing wife—," Annie explained, but Sam stepped in and finished her train of thought.

"The guy gets cocky and shows off his great patch up job to the cops. But when he taps the wall, he hears a cat cry and realizes he buried his cat alive in the wall along with his wife's body. Then the cops find the guy's wife's body and take him to jail. But either way, he wanted the cops to know that he killed his wife, when he knew they could never prove it," Sam said.

"Right," Annie said. "He was either egotistical, _or_ he felt guilty," she said. "Maybe it's the same thing with McClellan. Whether it was to show off or to appease his guilty conscience, he _wanted_ people to know that he killed one of his slaves. So he built the shed to not only hide the body, but to show everyone what he had done," Annie explained.

As Dean drove down the road of the small Mississippi town, he looked from Sam and then to Annie, and then back to Sam, before saying, "Wow, could you two be a bigger dork?" Annie and Sam glanced at one another and laughed. "You have spent _way _too much time with geek boy over here," he said to Annie as he nodded his head towards his little brother.

Sam huffed and rolled eyes before lightheartedly hitting his brother's shoulder. "Seriously, man. You're a bad influence on my kid," Dean said with mock earnestness before letting out a soft chuckle.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with actually paying attention in school," Annie said.

"That's right," Sam said turning in his seat slightly to look back at Annie. "And don't let _him_ tell you otherwise," Sam said nodding head towards Dean.

A comfortable silence settled between the three of them as Annie mentally went over the previous conversation in her head. They were all so cheerful and comfortable with each other, joking around and laughing with one another. But a particular part of the conversation kept replaying in Annie's mind. _You're a bad influence on my kid._ She didn't want to be a typical girl and blow it way out of proportion, but how could she not? Dean had referred to her as "his kid". Annie didn't care whether he intended to or not, it was progress for Dean. He was slowly stepping away from being a hunter, always with his guard up, waiting for someone to make one wrong move, waiting for someone to betray them, and slowly but surely moving closer to the man she had known her entire life, the man she had come to love. He was slowly moving towards the man she had known as her father.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

By the time Sam, Dean, and Annie got to the old plantation house, the sun had dipped just below the horizon, turning the sky into magnificent shades of pinks and purples. It would have been a rather beautiful and breathtaking sight had it not been under such grave and unfortunate circumstances.

The three Winchesters stepped out of the car and walked around to the rear end. Dean popped open the trunk and opened up the arsenal hatch, sticking a sawed off shot gun under it off to the side to keep it held up. Dean grabbed a shovel and handed one to Sam. He grabbed a sawed off shot gun and a flashlight and handed them to Annie. She grabbed a handful of rock salt bullets and stowed them in her pocket, just in case. Dean grabbed another shovel for himself before closing the trunk and locking it up.

Dean strode towards the decrepit shed, the dry, dead lawn crunching beneath his boots, as Sam and Annie fell into step beside him. Annie's flashlight beam bobbed across the yard as they stepped closer and closer towards the wooden shack.

They approached the shed and found it to be padlocked shut, presumably by one of the home owners many years ago. The steel lock had with stood the test of time and elements of Mississippi's unpredictable weather. But over time a thick layer of rust had formed around the exterior of the lock, which made it fairly easy for Dean to break with his shovel. In fact, it just took one hard strike to snap the lock from its hook on the door. Dean swiftly tossed the broken lock to the ground and pushed open the creaky, wooden door, whose hinges were nearly as rusted as the padlock. The rotted wooden floor boards groaned beneath their feet as Sam, Dean and Annie stepped inside the dark shed.

Annie gazed across the interior of the shed, but froze when her flashlight beam swept across the various sharp, threatening looking farming tools that adorned the wall of the shed. "Oh, shit," Annie said under her breath.

Sam and Dean looked over at Annie when they heard her speak. But quickly felt the same feeling of dread when they too saw the farming tools hanging on the wall. "Well, we better do this quick, then," Dean said. "Hey Ann, shine the light over here," he instructed.

Annie turned around and shined the light to where Sam and Dean were standing. They raised their shovels above their head and drove the blades of the shovels into the weak wood, snapping it easily. They continued to do so until there was enough room to dig into the ground and search for a body.

Once the broken wood was out of the way, Sam and Dean dug their shovels into the soft earth, tossing piles of dirt a decent distance away from where they were digging. At one point, Annie narrowly missed a shovel full of dirt to the face. She dodged out of the way before it could hit her however. "Hey, watch where you're tossing the dirt!" Annie exclaimed, dusting a few pieces of dust off her shoulder that she hadn't been able to avoid.

"Sorry," Dean said a little sheepishly, but he was still unable to contain his laughter.

Sam and Dean continued to excavate deeper into the ground. They had dug at least three feet into the ground and had still not found anything. Annie stood, holding the flashlight for Sam and Dean as they dug, when she suddenly felt a drop in the temperature. The familiar feeling of being watched made the hair on the back of Annie's neck stand on end. "Uh… guys?" Annie said warily. Sam and Dean stopped what they were doing and looked up at her. "I think we have company. And I don't think they're too pleased we're here."

Suddenly, a strong wind picked up, and the wooden door to the shed slammed shut. The farming tools hanging on the wall swayed and clattered against one another in the wind. Annie looked over at Sam and Dean, eyes wide with fear, hoping for a sign of what to do. Dean dropped his shovel and quickly grabbed the shot gun that was resting on the floor. Just as Annie looked over at Sam, she saw a pitch fork, aiming straight for his head.

"Sam!" she exclaimed and she launched forward and pushed Sam out of the way just as the pitch fork went whizzing by her head. As Annie tried to stand back up, a few other sharp objects flew over head, causing her, as well as Sam and Dean to duck down for cover.

Once objects had stopped flying through the air, and they felt it safe enough, the three of them slowly stood up. But just as Annie got to her feet, a hatchet went flying towards Sam's chest. "No!" Annie shrieked as she shoved Sam out of the way.

But Annie wasn't able to get out of the way quick enough, and the rusted blade of the hatchet buried deep into Annie's right bicep. Annie crashed to the ground as the intense pain made her knees give out beneath her. "Son of a bitch!" Annie exclaimed loudly, clutching her arm close to her body as she lay against the bank of the hole that Sam and Dean had dug.

"Annie!" Sam shouted as he watched everything happen as if it were in slow motion. He dashed down beside Annie. "Annie, you okay?" Sam asked frantically.

"Just dandy," Annie said sarcastically through gritted teeth. "Hey, Sam?" she said.

"Yeah?"

"Do me a favor. Get this damn thing out of my arm," Annie said. The pain Annie was in was evident. She took in deep ragged, pain filled breaths. So Sam complied. He gripped the wooden handle of the hatchet and tried to ease it out her arm to make it as painless as possible. But he paused when he saw Annie wince in pain. "Just… yank it out," Annie said.

"Alright," Sam said. Annie squeezed her eyes shut, and Sam pulled the hatchet out of Annie's arm in one swift movement.

The removal of the hatchet from Annie's arm was followed by a string of profane curses and a groan of pain. Dean glanced down at Annie and saw her pain filled condition as he continued to scan the dark room for the spirit. "You okay, Ann?" he asked with concern.

Annie looked up from her place on the ground, clutching her right arm close to her body, and curled her pointer finger and thumb together to form an "O" shape, giving Dean the "okay" sign.

As Dean nodded his head, his saw out of the corner of his eye, a tall, shadowy figure move across the room. He quickly aimed the shot gun to where he thought it was, and fired a load of rock salt at it. Dean saw movement at the other corner of the shed and fired another round in its direction. Annie slowly clambered to her feet, and picked up the flashlight off the floor. Annie grabbed the shovel and tossed it to Sam, who caught it easily. "Keep digging and torch the son of a bitch!" she instructed fiercely.

Sam began digging as fast as he could as Annie sat up on the wooden floor, holding the flashlight for him, while Dean fired shot after shot at the shadowy figure.

Dean went to fire another shot at the spirit to hold him off, but found he needed to reload the shot gun. But as Dean quickly popped open the barrel of the gun to reload, the spirit advanced upon him. Annie looked up just as the spirit grabbed Dean by the throat and shoved him up against the wall. "Dean!" she called out. The moon light that slipped through the cracks of the wooden walls of the shed illuminated the spirits dark, ghastly face. There was an anger in him that sent chills down Annie's spine. He clutched Dean's throat tighter and tighter, making Dean choke and cough as he lashed out at the spirit. She quickly turned to Sam and said, "Hurry up, Sam!"

Sam dug a little deeper, until his shovel finally came into contact with hard wood. Sam raised his shovel above his head and drove it down into the wood, causing it to break. As Sam leapt out of the grave, Annie poured gasoline and salt on the skeleton inside the coffin. Sam pulled a match from the box, lit it, and dropped it on the corpse, igniting it into tall hot flames.

Annie watched the spirit release Dean from his grasp. Dean let out a few gasping breaths as he slumped to the floor. The spirit stumbled backwards a few steps before erupting into flames and disintegrating into dust like his corpse.

"Dean!" Sam exclaimed as he dashed over to his brother. "Dean, are you okay?"

Dean took in a few rasping breaths before sticking his thumb up to show that he was okay.

Annie slowly stood up and made her way over to Dean and Sam. She was relieved to see that Dean was okay. When she saw his face turn a slight shade of blue while the spirit was choking him, she had really begun to worry. Annie was feeling a little dizzy due to the amount of blood she had lost from the wound on her arm. The blood had made its way down her arm and was beginning to drip onto the floor.

Sam grabbed their things before he, Dean and Annie stepped out of the old shed. As they approached the Impala, Dean said to Annie in a raspy voice, "Let's get you back to the motel and patch you up. Just—."

"Don't worry, I won't bleed on the upholstery," Annie said, finishing Dean's sentence for him as she crawled into the backseat of the Impala.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Dean sat at the table across from Annie, the first aid kit and many blood soaked pieces of gauze, littering the table top. Dean winced as he finally saw the severity of the wound. "It's a pretty deep cut. It's gonna have to be stitched up," Dean said giving Annie an uneasy look.

Annie let out a deep reluctant sigh. "Fine," she said. "Go ahead, stitch it up."

"You sure?" Dean asked apprehensively.

"Yeah, just give me some pain meds before you do," Annie said. It wasn't that Annie was thrilled about getting stitched up. In fact, she hated it, but she'd rather have to get stitches than bleed to death. Sam got Annie a glass of water as Dean pour a few pain pills out into the palm of his hand. Annie quickly washed down the pills with a large gulp of water.

Once the meds started to take affect and Dean had threaded the needle, he began to stitch up Annie's wound with ease. Annie flinched every now and then, but other than that, she hid her pain rather well.

As Dean worked the needle through Annie's skin he said, "So what's up with that whole self-sacrificing thing you did back there? You put someone else's life before yours often?" He looked up at Annie with one eyebrow raised for a moment, before continuing his stitch job.

Annie smiled and shrugged her left shoulder before saying, "What can I say, it kinda runs in the family."

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**A/N**: You guys know the drill.  
Reviews make me :D


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

**A/n**: Hello all. I hope you're all doing well. Here is the new chapter. I hope you enjoy it. It's a bit of a monster, this one. Think of this long chapter as pay back for not updating in a while.

Just wanted to give thanks to the usual people, they know who they are. And they know how much I love them. :)  
And of course, and I can't thank people without thanking the lovely reviewers. Thanks guys. Your wonderfully kind, sweet words fill me with glee. :D

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Dean sat on the edge Annie's bed and looked down at her small form as she turned onto her side in her sleep. He heaved a deep sigh and ran a hand over his tired face and through his short hair. He'd barely gotten any sleep at all the past couple of days, what with worrying about Annie and her condition. At one point, Dean even considered taking Annie to the hospital when things were at their worst. But luckily a hospital wasn't necessary, and Annie was able to pull through.

Dean didn't know how things had gotten so bad, so quickly. A few days ago, Annie was perfectly fine. Besides the rather nasty cut on her arm, she was her normal, energetic, upbeat self. But Dean knew from past experiences that it took only one small thing to make everything else go down hill.

Dean looked across the room at his brother, who was sleeping soundly on the other bed. He grinned to himself at how Sam's gargantuan legs hung off the end of the bed and the comforter just barely covered his equally large feet. '_Thank God for Sam_,' Dean thought as he recalled all the times Sam helped out during the past few days. If it weren't for Sam, Dean was sure that things wouldn't have gone as smoothly as they did considering Sam was Mr. Level-Headed throughout the ordeal.

That was one thing that bugged Dean, as he thought back on what had happened. Sam was calm, cool and collected, while Dean was worried sick and completely stressed out, to the point where he was constantly checking on Annie and making sure she was okay. Well, as okay as someone could be in her condition. It kind of unnerved Dean a little to be the frantic one. Usually, that was Sam's job. But in this case, they'd done a complete role reversal. And that scared the crap out of Dean.

He didn't know why he had gotten so worked up, so worried, so absolutely _freaked_. Sure, what happened to Annie wasn't a good thing, but it'd happened enough times before for him and Sam to know how to handle the situation in a quick and easy fashion. But then why was he completely overwhelmed by this immense feeling of apprehension and concern. The only time he'd ever felt like that was when he'd seen Sam in danger. But that feeling had been acquired over years of taking care of his little brother, protecting him, and watching him grow up. So then how was it that Dean had gotten that twisted knot of anxiety in his stomach after spending just under a month with Annie?

Sam had teased Dean over the course of the past few days, saying that he thought it was "cute" how Dean got so worried over his little girl. And Sam said how he was surprised at how Dean had stepped into the Daddy shoes so easily when Annie was hurt. But Dean had often scoffed at the proposition of being a dad, to Sam, so he'd crack a joke, or say something along the lines of, "I'm not worried about her, I just don't want to have to carry her ass to the hospital and pay those damn hospital bills."

Even though Sam and Dean both knew that they never _really_ paid hospital bills.

Dean brushed a few strands of Annie's chocolate hair out of her face as she slept. He watched her chest rise and fall with each breath she took. He noticed the way her ivory skin seemed to glow luminously in the moon light that slipped through a crack in the curtains. He noted how peaceful and innocent Annie looked, curled in a ball with her long hair tied back in a loose bun, wearing one of Sam's old sweatshirts that nearly went down to her knees, buried under a mountain of covers, as she dreamed of what Dean could only hope was of lollipops and candy canes. Dean looked down at Annie with his warm green eyes with what could only be described as one thing: love.

* * *

**Three Days Earlier**

Sam, Dean and Annie stepped out of the diner where they had just eaten lunch, if you could even call what they'd eaten "food". The pasta that Sam had ordered still crunched, the burger Dean ate sat in a pile of what Dean had called "juice", but what Sam and Annie deemed "grease", and the piece of chicken that Annie chased around her plate with her fork was rather questionable. After bravely taking a small bite of the piece of meat, but quickly spitting it out into her napkin, Annie said in a whisper to Sam and Dean so the employees of the small dinner wouldn't hear, "I'm not entirely sure it's really_chicken_."

"I don't think_anything_ is really what they say it is in this place," Sam had replied.

As the Winchesters crossed the parking lot of the diner and strode towards the Impala, Annie said to Sam and Dean, "We are _never_ eating at that place _ever again_."

Sam laughed. He cast a glance over his shoulder at the diner and then looked back at Annie. "Yeah, I think I have to agree with you there. We've eaten at some pretty bad places, but that's definitely one of the worst."

"Honestly, "Annie said. "I don't know how you guys do it. Living off of fast food and eating in shady diners," she said. "It's a wonder that you guys aren't fat… or will be," Annie added thoughtfully.

"So we're a bunch of handsome, muscular men in the future?" Dean asked with a smug grin.

"Well you're no Brad Pitt, but I gotta say you two don't look half bad for guys your age," Annie replied.

"Guys our age…?" Dean said questioningly. "You make us sound old."

"Well no offense, but ya kinda are," Annie said truthfully, shrugging her left, uninjured shoulder a little warily. "You are 48 after all."

"I am?" Dean said incredulously, a little taken aback. He never really thought he'd lived live long enough to see 40, let alone 48. It was kinda part of the job description: consider yourself lucky to live past the age of 30.

"Yeah," Annie said. "I'm from 2027. Do the math. That makes you 48, and Sammy 44. I hate to say it guys, but you're just a few years shy of being a couple of old fogies," Annie said teasingly.

Dean gave Annie a look of mock exasperation and whacked her left arm with the back of his hand. "Hey, watch it."

Sam and Dean climbed into their rightful seats in the front of the car as Annie settled into the backseat. She rolled her right shoulder around slowly in its place, already feeling the sore, tender skin beginning to tense up. Annie could steadily feel the pain meds starting to lose their affect and an underlying ache settling in. It was gonna be a long drive to nowhere if things kept progressing at the rate they were going.

As Dean was backing out of the parking space, and leaving the parking lot of the diner, he caught a glimpse of the slight look of pain on Annie's face. Although he didn't blame her. After having a hatchet sticking out of your arm, it's perfectly understandable to be in a little discomfort.

"You okay, Ann?" Dean asked looking back at her through the review mirror as he drove down the road at the same time.

Annie gave a small smile and nodded her head. "Yeah."

Sam turned around in his seat slightly to look at her. "Are you in pain? Do you want some meds for your arm?" he asked, acting very much like the mother hen Annie had known back in her time.

"Really guys, I'm fine," Annie said reassuringly with a smile. "So where are we headed?" she asked, swiftly changing the subject away from her.

"Well, we were thinking," Dean began.

"That's never good," Annie interrupted jokingly.

Dean shook his head at the comment. "You think you're funny, don't you?" he said.

Annie leaned forward, placing her uninjured arm on the back of the seat, resting her head on her arm. "I think I'm adorable," she said with a smirk.

Dean rolled his eyes and shook his head. This kid was too much sometimes. "As I was saying," Dean said, shooting Annie a look as she sunk back into the backseat. "Sam and I were thinking that we should keep looking for a way to get you back home," Dean said.

"But we already looked into just about everything," Annie said.

"Well not,_everything_," Sam replied. "A friend of ours might be able to help us."

"Oh, really?" Annie said. "Who?" she questioned with interest.

"Her name's Missouri," Sam said.

"Missouri Mosley?" Annie asked, the name striking a familiar chord in her mind.

"Yeah, you know her?" Dean asked.

Annie smiled to herself as she thought back on her first gathering with the seasoned old psychic and the get-togethers that followed. "We've met."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

After spending endless hours on the road, Dean decided that they should take a little break. As Annie got out of the car, her legs wobbled like jell-o. She held onto the door of the car for support until she finally trusted her legs well enough to hold up her weight. She breathed in the cool crisp autumn air as she looked around the picturesque rural town that they'd stopped in for the time being. It was a small town, but not one of the smallest that Annie had seen. The town, that a sign on the edge of town declared in elegantly beautiful hand painted letters was named McHenry, had a little over a thousand residents.

A quaint little park sat off in the distance and children could be heard squealing with laughter as they played. The leaves on the trees had turned to rich shades of reds, yellows, and oranges. The oak trees' leaves slowly fluttered down to the cool green grass as a light breeze sifted through them.

Annie turned and spotted a general store across the street and decided to go and check it out. She told Sam and Dean where she was headed and they nodded.

"Wait," Dean said. Annie turned around and walked over towards him. Dean pulled out his wallet from his back pocket and placed a handful of bills in Annie's palm. "In case you wanna get something," he was with a slight shrug. "What do you say we meet back here in about… 20 minutes?" Dean said. He looked over at Sam for confirmation that it was a proper time limit. Sam nodded in agreement.

"Okay," Annie said. "Thanks," she said to Dean, holding up the money in her hand. Dean nodded to show his acknowledgment of Annie's gratitude.

Sam and Dean watched Annie look both ways before crossing the street at a slight jog, before setting out to explore the town on their own.

Dean shoved his hands into his pockets as he and Sam walked down the sidewalk. A comfortable silence settled between the two as they enjoyed the cool, fall air and the bright blue sky that hung overhead. But Dean broke the silence when he finally voiced his musings.

"She's a good kid," Dean said.

Sam didn't have to think about who his brother was speaking of; it was obvious. Sam looked over at his brother and offered him a small smile. "Yeah, she's a good kid."

The guys wordlessly agreed to heading into the small bar in town for a drink. "And she has you to thank for that," Sam added as he and Dean stepped inside the bar.

Dean gave him a look of pure incredulity as he stepped up to the bar and ordered a drink for him and his brother. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, you _are_ her father, Dean. You're the one that raised her. It's because of you that she turned out to be such a great kid," Sam stated.

Dean merely scoffed at the notion. "I doubt that. I probably figured out a way to screw her up at some point," Dean said as the bartender placed the two beers in front of him and Sam.

"Dean, why is it that it's so hard for you to believe that you're a good Dad?" Sam questioned. "_You_ were more of a father to me than Dad was," Sam said. "You've played the role of big brother and father since the age of four… You're a natural." Sam said as he and Dean found a table near the back of the bar and sat down across from one another.

Dean's eyes dropped from his brother's eyes as he became more interested with his beer bottle, passing it from one hand to the other and picked at the label with his thumb. Dean took in a deep breath and let out a cough. "Her Mom is probably the reason she turned out alright," Dean said with a shrug. That's what Dean had concluded in his mind because there was no way _he _was the reason Annie was such a great girl.

"I don't know about that, man," Sam said as her picking up his beer and taking another sip. "Have you noticed how Annie rarely ever speaks about her Mom?" he pointed out.

Dean took a swig of his beer, but look at his brother, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, she never talks about her, and whenever we mention her or ask her a question about her, she doesn't answer. But it's not like she doesn't want to tell us, it's more like she doesn't _know_," Sam replied. "She's just very secretive about her mother."

"Yeah, but she's secretive about everything," Dean said pointedly. "She probably just doesn't want to press her luck with the whole being from the future thing," he suggested with a shrug.

"Yeah, maybe…," Sam said quietly before taking a sip of his beer.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Annie was welcomed into the shop by a bell ringing over head. The female clerk, who couldn't have been much older than Annie, sat behind the counter and looked up from the magazine that she was so thoroughly engrossed in. Annie offered the girl a small, polite smile. The clerk however did not return the gesture and turned back to her fashion magazine. Annie just shook her head and rolled her eyes before she made her way to the back of the store to use the restroom. She thought it best to use the bathroom now, rather than having to ask Dean to pull over to the side of the road so Annie could use the Little Girl's Bush in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing like having to use a few carefully picked leaves as toilet paper.

Annie made a mental note to pick up some peanut M&Ms and a bottle of water before she, Sam and Dean hit the road again. Annie inwardly groaned at the thought of having to climb back in the car for another few hours. She's been on her fair share of long car rides and road trips. It was part of the job description. But this was no road trip, it was their _life_. Being on the road 24/7 was really starting to get to her, and Annie wasn't sure how much more she could take. They were driving, but never really _getting_ anywhere. But the thought that Sam and Dean had been doing this for a better part of their lives, and would continue to do so until Annie was born, made Annie feel a pang of sorrow for her father and uncle. She wished that there was something that she could do to make things better for her family, she wished her family had a home, a safe haven, but she was only a teenaged girl without much pull in the world in regards to how someone's life played out. She was powerless in the most powerful situation a person could be in.

Annie heaved a sigh and proceeded towards the ladies room.

But Annie snickered to herself when she saw the makeshift store had simply labeled the lavatory in big, bold letters, "Toilet". Not restroom or bathroom, but _toilet_.

"Classy place," Annie muttered to herself as she stepped into the bathroom.

She did her business and washed her hands. As she worked the soap into a frothy lather, Annie felt the muscles in her right shoulder tighten and she winced. She rinsed her hands and dried them off before pulling up the leave of her shirt to inspect the wound on her arm. She peeled back the square bandage that Dean had placed over the wound after he'd stitched it to keep Annie from getting any dirt in the wound or snagging the stitches on anything and pulling them out.

The area around the wound was slightly red and the skin was quite tender and sore. But other than that, everything appeared to be fine. She was sure that it was normal to be a little sore after obtaining such a deep cut. Annie stuck the bandage back in place and rolled her sleeve back down before exiting the restroom.

Annie picked up a few things that she wanted and paid at the front counter with the money that Dean had given her. The blonde clerk, who looked rather bored, smacked and popped her gum obnoxiously as she handed Annie the bag of her purchases. As Annie stepped out of the store, she saw Sam and Dean standing by the car, waiting for her.

"Whadya get?" Dean asked, eyeing the white plastic bag in Annie's hand with interest. Annie merely pulled the bag of M&Ms out of the bag and tossed them over to Dean. "Nice!" Dean praised, as he already began opening up the large bag and shoveling a handful into his mouth.

"Hey!" Annie said, snatching the bag from Dean's grasp. "Those are a snack for when we're on the road. Don't eat them all _now_," she said.

"Oh," Dean said with a shrug before getting into the car.

Annie stuck her hand in the bag and popped a few in her mouth. She figured she might as well eat a few since Dean had so unceremoniously opened the bag. She held the bag towards Sam. "Want some?" Sam kindly declined, sticking up one large hand, palm out, and shook his head.

"Alright…" Annie said. "But between me and him," she said, nodding her head towards the Impala where Dean had already fired up the engine, and had AC/DC blaring through the speakers. "There's no guarantee that there'll be any left later," Annie said with a laugh.

"I'm used to it," Sam said with a good natured smile. Annie laughed.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dean had driven well into the night. Sam had fallen asleep in the passenger seat, his forehead pressed against the cool glass as he slept. Annie was in the backseat, slipping in and out of a fitful slumber. Whether she was awake or asleep, Annie was constantly fidgeting, trying to find a way to get comfortable. Dean looked at his watch. It was just after 11, and they were only a few hours outside of Lawrence. But whether they got to Lawrence that night or not, there wasn't much they could do. They couldn't just go prancing up to Missouri's front door in the middle of the night. So, Dean decided that they find a place to sleep for the night.

He took the next exit and found a Motel 8 for them to stay at. As Dean parked the car in front of the motel, Sam shifted in his seat and sat up. "Whas goin' on?" Sam said groggily, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"I thought we'd crash here for the night," said Dean. "I'm gonna go get us a room." He got out of the car and walked into the motel office, returning moments later with their room key.

Dean peered in the back window of the Impala and saw that Annie had finally fallen asleep. But he didn't have the heart to wake her when it took her nearly two hours to actually slip into a restful slumber. So, as quietly and carefully as Dean could, he opened the back door of his car. After Sam finally climbed out of the car, stretching his stiff muscles, Dean tossed the room key over the roof of the Impala to his brother, who caught it right before it hit him squarely in the head. Dean slipped his hand behind Annie's back and under her knees and carefully carried her sleeping form to the door of their motel room that Sam had already opened up for them.

Sam quickly walked over to the bed farthest from the door and threw back the stiff comforter. Dean gently laid Annie down onto the bed. Sam then eased Annie's boots off her feet and dropped them on to the floor beside the bed. Sam headed back outside to get their bags as Dean pulled the blankets over Annie's small figure and tucked her in.

Sam dropped all three of their bags on the floor by the table that was placed in the room. Dean walked over to Sam in the dark room. They paused, and then turned their attention to the remaining bed. "So who gets the bed, cause I sure as hell am not gonna share it with _you_," Sam said to his brother in a whisper as to not disturb Annie as she slept.

"Well, I get the bed," Dean replied as if it were the simplest question in the world.

"What? Why?" Sam said.

"Because I'm the oldest, that's why," Dean said, giving a curt nod.

"No, screw that. We handle this the old fashioned way," Sam said.

He turned to face his brother squarely as he laid out his open palm, with his other hand curled into a fist, resting on his open palm. Dean jutted his chin out defiantly and stood a little taller as he mirrored his brother's stance and laid out his hand as well. Sam and Dean struck their fists against that palms one, two, three times before declaring their weapon of choice. Sam, rock; Dean, scissors. Sam tapped his fist over Dean's hand before he grasped his brother's shoulders, grinning triumphantly. Dean cursed under his breath as Sam sighed and gave a soft laugh. "Oh, Dean. Always with the scissors."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dean had been sleeping soundly on the not-so-soft carpeting when he suddenly felt something was wrong. His eyes cracked open and looked around the dark room the best he could. He could've sworn he'd heard something. Dean was never a very heavy sleeper. But even when the man was fast asleep, he was still in tune with everything around him.

Dean propped himself up on his elbows as he looked over at Sam's bed. His brother was still asleep in the bed closest to the door, his long limbs hanging over the edge of the bed. Dean's eyes traveled over to the other bed, but saw that it was empty. The blankets were a tangled mess on the floor, as was a few of the exceptionally flat pillows. Dean sat up straighter and looked around the room. Annie was no where to be found. But then Dean heard it, the noise that he was positive he heard a second ago. It was coming from the bathroom.

Dean stood up from the floor and walked over towards the bathroom door, and was open just a crack. The door creaked a little as Dean pushed it open. The bathroom was dark, but he saw a small figured huddled in a ball on the floor beside the toilet. Dean flicked on the light and squinted against the harsh brightness of the light. He looked down and saw Annie sitting on the cold tile floor beside the toilet, her arms draped limply around the bowl as her head rested against her arm.

"Annie?" Dean said softly. "You okay?"

Annie lifted her head and looked up at Dean, her face ghostly white as she gave him a look that quite simply said, "What do _you_ think?"

Dean kneeled down beside Annie. "What's wrong?" he said with concern. But Annie didn't say anything, just merely shook her head as he eye lids drooped heavily.

Just then, Annie felt her stomach lurch upwards. She leaned over the edge of the toilet and emptied the contents of her stomach. Dean looked at her pitifully. He wasn't sure any medicine he could give her to ease her stomach would do much good right about now. So he sat with her, held back Annie's long dark hair, and rubbed soothing circles on Annie's back as she continued to expel her insides. When she was finally finished, Dean handed her a small glass of water. Annie took it gratefully and rinsed out her mouth. They both sat there for a few moments incase Annie felt she was going to be sick again.

After the strain of vomiting finally hit her, Annie nearly felt all the energy she had left, leave her. Her form collapsed backwards, but luckily Dean caught her. Annie fell back into Dean's chest as he stayed seated on the floor. She laid her head lethargically back onto Dean's shoulder, feeling the mere weight of her head on her shoulders too much for her too handle.

As Dean brushed a few strands of Annie's hair from her face, it was then that he felt the searing heat coming from her forehead. He looked and saw that Annie's cheeks were flushed and her skin was pale and clammy. "Jesus Christ," Dean cursed softly.

Suddenly, Sam appeared at the doorway of the bathroom, having woken up from all the commotion. He squinted against the bright light as he peered into the bathroom at his brother and future niece, sprawled out on the bathroom floor. "What's going on?" he asked with confusion.

"Annie's sick," Dean said, trying to reposition himself so he'd be able to lift up Annie's feeble body. "She was just throwing up and she's burning up," he said, trying to hide the slight panic that was rapidly rising up inside him. The seriousness of the situation woke Sam up fully, and his stature straightened and his face took on a grave expression as he watched his brother hoist the young girl into his arms. She was just barely conscious and hung like a rag doll in his brother's arms.

Dean carried Annie into the other room and laid her down on the bed. Soft, yellow lamp light filled the room as Sam clicked on the bedside lamp. Dean grabbed the first aid kit from one of the bags and pulled a thermometer out of it. He stepped back over to Annie and sat down on the edge of the bed. He got Annie to open her mouth and stuck the thermometer under her tongue and held it there, because he knew Annie wouldn't be able to hold it in place herself. After thirty seconds had passed, Dean pulled the thermometer from Annie's mouth. After close inspection, he had discovered her fever had skyrocketed to 104. "Son of a bitch," Dean muttered. He stepped into the bathroom and ran a rag under cold water. He rang it out so it wasn't sopping wet, and returned to the other room, placing the cool rag on Annie's extremely warm forehead.

"What do you think made her so sick?" Dean asked Sam.

"I don't know…" Sam said softly. "Maybe she's exhausted," he suggested. "She's not used to being on the road like this. Maybe it's finally getting to her."

But that proposition was quickly shot down by the look Dean cast his brother. "You don't get a fever of 104 from being exhausted, Sam," Dean snapped.

"What about the flu?" Sam said.

"It's not flu season and she isn't showing any other symptoms," Dean replied.

"Food poisoning?"

"No, that's not it," Dean said softly. He didn't know why, but he had the strong feeling that none of those options were right.

Suddenly, a thought came to Sam's mind. "The cut," Sam muttered to himself at first, but then restated it again, louder. "The cut, have you checked the cut?"

"What cut?" Dean said, looking puzzled.

"The cut on her arm."

Then it dawned on him. Sam was talking about the cut that he had stitched shut a few days prior. He dashed over to the bed and carefully lifted up the sleeve of Annie's shirt. He pulled back the bandage and saw the cut had turned bright red around the area he had stitched and it was very swollen and warm to the touch. Dean looked over at Sam gravely. The cut was severely infected and they both knew that if they didn't do something fast, it would be bad, _very_ bad.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

The thing that was Dean's first priority was getting Annie's fever down. If it continued to get any higher, or refused to go down, he was sure that he'd have to take Annie to the hospital. And it's not exactly easy taking someone to the hospital when they technically don't exist.

After Dean was sure Annie's stomach had settled he tried to get her coherent enough to take some Tylenol for her fever. Sam stayed up with his brother to help look after Annie. Despite the fact that Sam had told Dean to go to bed, that it was just an infection and that Annie would be fine, Dean refused to go to sleep. He had to make sure that Annie was okay with his own two eyes. She was his responsibility. He knew his present and future self would never forgive him if something happened to his little girl.

At around 3:30 in the morning, Dean told his brother to go back to sleep after seeing his eyelids droop heavily and he struggled to stay awake. At first Sam protested against it, but Dean assured him that he had everything under control. Despite his better judgment, Sam crawled into bed and was out like a light in under a minute.

Dean was up reading an old car magazine he'd found in a drawer in the bedside table, tucked away safely underneath The Bible and a yellow notepad. Dean let out a deep yawn. He glanced over at the digital clock on the bedside table. It was a few minutes past four. He looked over at Annie. She appeared to be sleeping soundly, so Dean contemplated getting a few minutes of shut eye. He looked down at his blanket and pillow that still laid on the floor of the motel carpeting longingly. That sleep sure sounded great right about now. He looked from Annie, to his blankets, back up to Annie, and let out a sigh.

But just as Dean finally won the inner battle within himself, Annie let out a faint whimper and turned over in her sleep. Dean watched her intently. Her lips moved, but he couldn't make out a thing she was saying in her delirious, feverish state. But there was one word that stuck out clearly for him.

"Daddy," Annie mumbled softly as she tossed and turned in her sleep. "Daddy," she said again, but louder this time.

Dean stepped over to Annie's bed and sat down on the edge of the mattress. Annie thrashed about in her sleep, struggling against the covers as she continued to call out for her father. He placed a hand onto Annie's still warm forehead and lightly brushed the hair away from her face. "Shh…," he said softly. "Its okay, Annie. I'm here. Everything's alright… I'm here," Dean said soothingly.

Annie seemed to calm beneath Dean's comforting hand and her voice died down as she slipped back into a restful sleep.

Dean sighed and ran a hand over his face. He was beginning to feel the strain and tension of stress and anxiety building up in his shoulders and back. He glanced over his brother's still sleeping form. He wasn't sure how Sam hadn't woken up from Annie's frantic calls. But he was glad that he didn't because he was sure that if he did, Sam would never let Dean forget the shear chick flick moment that he'd just had…

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sam grinned into his pillow as he turned onto his side. He'd woken up when he heard Annie's frantic, delirious voice. She was calling out for her father. Sam contemplated getting up and helping his brother calm Annie down, but he decided to wait for a moment to see if Dean would do something on his own. He heard the springs in the neighboring mattress creak as his brother sat down on the edge of the bed. And then he heard something that surprised him.

He heard his brother console Annie.

He heard Dean's deep voice say softly, say _comfortingly_, "Shh… Its okay, Annie. I'm here. Everything's okay…. I'm here."

Sam drifted back to sleep as a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

Dean had everything under control.

* * *

**A/n**: All I want for Christmas is the Winchester Boys. Gift wrap isn't necessary. Or clothes for that matter. What? You aren't gonna tell me you weren't thinking the same thing... :P

I'd like some reviews for Christmas too, but those don't have to be wrapped either.

By the way, I'm hoping to update again before Christmas, but if that isn't the case (cause we all know how life is around the holidays), then I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and Santa brings you lots of goodies. :D

Much Love,  
Kelly


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

**A/N**: Okay you guys. First off, I am so so so so so so so so so sorry for the long delay. Especially leaving you off the way I did. But you know how life is, school got really mean and crazy with their homework giving, I had midterms this past week, and then I had some family problems. It's like life doesn't want me to write. :( So once again, I'm really sorry for the long delay. Hopefully next time it won't be so long. But you know how life is, so we shall see.

But have no fear, here is the next chapter. I hope you like it.

**Disclaimer**: I still don't own anything that you recognize. If I did, I'd be writing new episodes _myself_.

* * *

Annie groggily turned onto her side as she slowly started to regain consciousness. She realized that she was lying in the comforts of a warm motel room bed, but had no recollection of how exactly she got there. Annie laid in bed, staring at the wall, trying to piece together the snippets of information that she _did_ remember. Which wasn't much.

She remembered being in the back seat of the Impala as Dean drove and Sam rode shotgun. She remembered drifting off to sleep, but not after tossing and turning to find the most comfortable part of the seat to position herself in. She was half asleep and isn't too certain of the authenticity of the memory, but she vaguely remembers Dean carrying her into the motel room and laying her down on a bed. She remembers waking up in the middle of the night, sleeping under a mountain of covers, and feeling very hot. She remembered kicking off the sheets in am attempt to cool off. And she remembers suddenly feeling sick to her stomach and running off to the bathroom to go expel her insides. Everything else, like how she got back into bed, why there was a semi-damp rag sitting on her pillow by her head, or why her left arm, the one with the cut, felt like it was on _fire_.

With a soft groan, Annie rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling for a moment. She lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the bright light that she suddenly realized was spilling into the room around the curtains. She went to sit upright, but when she did, the room began to spin and a thousand percussionists began playing their loudest tune inside her head. So she decided it best to remain in a horizontal position, or at least until she stepped off the tilt-a-whirl and the percussionists ended their big number.

Dean was sitting at the table, when he heard Annie let out a soft, pain filled groan. He crossed the room in three long strides and stepped up to the side of Annie's bed. He looked down at Annie, who had both her hands covering her face. Annie must have felt Dean's presence looming over her because she parted her fingers and peered through them as she looked up at him.

"Not feelin' too great, huh?" Dean asked.

"No," came Annie's muffled reply as she spoke with her hands still over her face. She rubbed her face with her hands as she let out a deep sigh. Despite the fact that the room was still spinning a little, Annie slowly sat up straighter, propping herself up against the headboard. "What happened?" she asked, suddenly realizing how hoarse and weak her voice sounded.

"The cut on your arm got infected pretty badly. You were pretty sick last night," Dean explained as he sat down on the edge of Annie's bed.

Annie nodded her head slowly. "Well, that explains why I feel like I was hit by a truck and why my arm hurts so bad," she said.

Dean nodded. He reached over to the bedside table and picked up a bottle of pills. He popped the cap of the pill bottle off with his thumb and poured a few capsules into the palm of his hand. He then picked up a small glass filled about half way with water and handed the drugs and the glass to Annie explaining that they were for the pain. Annie took the offered pills gratefully and popped them into her mouth, washing them down with the water.

Annie placed the glass back on the nightstand. "Where's Sam?" Annie asked as she looked around the room to find her uncle no where in sight.

"He's in the shower," Dean replied, nodding his head sideways towards the bathroom.

"Oh," Annie replied with a small nod as she suddenly became aware of the soft sound of running water in the background. She wasn't quite sure how she could miss it, but then again, she couldn't hear much else besides the orchestra still pounding away inside her mind.

"Do you still feel like you have a fever?" Dean asked Annie.

Annie shrugged one shoulder. "I don't know. A little."

With that, Dean stood up and began rifling through the first aid kit. He found what he was looking for and stepped back over to Annie. "Open up," Dean instructed, holding the thermometer out in front of Annie. She opened her mouth and Dean stuck the thermometer under her tongue.

"So, how sick was I?" Annie asked, the thermometer bobbing up and down in her mouth as she spoke.

"Uh, uh, uh," Dean said waving a finger at Annie disapprovingly. "Don't talk, it's gonna mess with the reading," he chastised.

Annie let out a sigh through her nose and rolled her eyes as she clamped her mouth shut. She rolled the thermometer around under her tongue as they waited for the thermometer to finish getting Annie's temperature. After the thermometer gave a tell tale beep, Dean plucked the device from Annie's mouth and read it.

"Well," Dean said, looking up from the thermometer to look at Annie. "Your fever's come down, but it's still a little high. 100.8."

"How high was my fever last night?" Annie asked.

"104," Dean stated.

"Well, crap," Annie said with surprise. "That explains why I don't remember much from last night," she said, rubbing a hand over forehead.

"Yeah, you were pretty out of it," Dean said.

"I didn't do anything weird last night, did I? I mean, I didn't think anyone was a mailbox or start squawking like a chicken or anything, did I?" Annie asked a little warily. "It's just that I've been known to act a little loopy when I'm feverish or pumped up on medicine," she explained with a sheepish grin.

Dean chuckled. "No, nothing like that. You were just really delirious and were mumbling in your sleep and stuff," he replied.

"Really? Anything else?" she asked uncertainly.

Dean paused a moment, looking slightly hesitant before clearing his throat, saying, "No, that's it."

Annie noticed the way Dean hesitated and looked at him curiously. Just then, both Annie and Dean jump slightly when the bathroom opened up and Sam stepped out amongst a cloud of steam, only clad in an off white motel room towel wrapped around his waist. They hadn't even realized the water had stopped running.

Sam stopped dead in his tracks as identical pairs of bright green eyes turned towards him. But upon seeing Sam's… _attire_, Annie quickly averted her gaze to anywhere but Sam. Sure, since Annie lived with her Dad and her Uncle, she'd seen Sam in nothing but his boxers, but still. It was just… _awkward_.

Sam felt a blush creep into his cheeks as he saw Annie quickly look away from him. "Sorry," Sam said sheepishly. "I thought you were still asleep."

"It's okay," Annie replied, still keeping her gaze elsewhere.

Sam quickly crossed the room, grabbed his duffel bag and ducked back into the bathroom to get changed. He returned a minute later, fully clothed, his wet hair hanging limply in his face. "How ya feeling?" Sam asked Annie after stepping out of the bathroom.

"Okay, I guess, everything considered," Annie replied. Sam nodded, giving a sympathetic smile.

Annie looked over at Dean curiously as he sifted through the rather unorganized first aid kit. "Hey, Sam? Do we still have those antibiotics in here?" Dean called over his shoulder.

"As far as I know," Sam said, stepping up beside his brother. "There they are," Sam said, reaching in and pulling a bottle of pills from the kit.

Dean promptly pulled them from his little brother's grasp and stepped over to Annie, opening the bottle and pouring two tablets into the palm of his hand. "These are for the infection," Dean explained, handing the pills to Annie.

Annie took the pills in her hand, but as she did so, she caught a glimpse at the name printed on the label of the bottle. She looked up at Dean with one eyebrow quirked.

"What?" he asked.

Annie nodded her head towards the pill bottle. "Kirk Hammett?" she said questioningly with a grin tugging at the corner of her lips.

"What? Hunting doesn't exactly have a medical plan," Dean replied.

"I know that, but seriously. _Kirk Hammett_? It's a wonder you guys haven't been caught yet using alias like the lead guitarist from Metallica," Annie said as she shook he head incredulously. She picked up the glass of water on the bedside table and popped the pills into her mouth.

Dean looked at Annie with surprise. "I'm impressed that you even know who that is," Dean said as he walked over to the first aid kit and tossed the bottle of pills back in.

Annie swallowed down the pills and looked at Dean doubtfully. "Really? Cause the way I figure it, having you as a Dad, it's kind of a give in that I'd know who that is," she stated pointedly.

"Good point," Dean replied.

Dean looked at the first aid kit and saw that they were a little low on supplies. Upon seeing this, he picked up his coat that was hanging on the back of the chair and slid it on. "I'm gonna head into town and pick up a few things. Sam, you stay here and keep an eye on Annie. I'll be back in a few," he said.

"What, suddenly I need a babysitter?" Annie asked, one eyebrow raised cynically.

"In your condition, yes," Dean replied simply, shooting her a look that said the order was not up for debate and stepped out the door.

Annie sat there staring at the door that Dean just exited through, and realization hit her. She hadn't just gotten a glimpse of who her father would become, she got a full blown view of it. It amazed her how Dean had changed so quickly. When she'd first gotten to this time, she'd only seen one side to him. She saw Dean, the tough, brooding, cunning hunter. But he changed, seemingly over night, from being a cautious, reserved hunter to Dean, the gentle, caring, worried father. It was quite an evolution in such a short amount of time. And it made Annie's heart swell with joy.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dean returned to the motel room a few hours later to find Sam and Annie sitting across from one another on Annie's bed, playing cards. There was a small pile of one dollar and five dollar bills, and some change, laying on the bed in between the both of them. Sam gazed at Annie's face, trying to read her expression, but the girl had a poker face that rivaled that of Dean's. He looked back down at his cards and sighed. Sam looked back up at Annie and said, "I fold." Sam stood up and turned to his brother. "This girl could give even _you_ a run for your money at poker," he said as walked across the room and stepped into the bathroom.

A triumphant grin spread across Annie's face as Dean chuckled. "He never really was good at poker," he said to Annie.

Annie laughed softly. "I know that. That's why I asked him to play," Annie said with bright grin as she gathered her winnings.

Dean looked at Annie with surprise, and then looked in the direction of the bathroom, before letting out a loud bark of laughter. "Kid, I gotta tell ya, you are something else," Dean said as he emptied the brown paper bag of the things that he had bought.

Annie was counting how much money she'd won after kicking Sam's butt at poker, when she felt a presence hovering beside her. She looked up and saw Dean standing there, rocking back and forth on his heels with his hands behind his back. Annie looked up him curiously. "What?" she asked.

Dean brought his hands around to the front of him, holding a medium sized, light brown teddy bear with a red bow tied around its neck. He held it awkwardly like he wasn't quite sure how to hold it or what to do with it. He cleared his throat before speaking. "I, uh, I saw this and I, um, thought you'd like it, maybe, as like, uh, a get well gift," Dean said uneasily before thrust it towards Annie.

Annie took the teddy bear in her hands and looked up at Dean, uncertain of what to say. A looked of confusion crossed her face as she said with a soft laugh, "What am I, five?"

Dean hung his head sheepishly as a slight shade of red crept into his cheeks. "I, uh, can take it back if you don't want it," he said quickly.

Annie couldn't help but laugh at how embarrassed Dean looked. He was usually so strong and unwavering, now he looked so small and unsure of himself. She gave him a reassuring smile before saying as she looked down at the soft teddy bear in her hands, "No, I love it. He's adorable." She looked back up at Dean. "Thank you. That was really nice of you."

A small smile spread across Dean's face as he gave a small nod as means of saying "You're welcome".

Sam stepped out of the bathroom and rejoined his family. He caught sight of the teddy bear in Annie's hands and he immediately turned his questioningly gaze onto his brother. But Dean merely hung his head and rubbed the back of his neck as he turned away from his brother's discriminating look.

Dean let out a small cough before he turned towards Annie. "So, are you feeling better?" he asked.

"Yeah, I am actually," she replied.

"Good," Dean said. "Are you feeling up to hitting the road again?" he asked.

Annie nodded. "Yes."

"Alright, then what do ya say we leave tomorrow morning," Dean suggested, looking from Annie and then to Sam. "If we leave by 9 tomorrow, we can get to Missouri's place by lunch."

"Sounds good," Annie said and Sam nodded in agreement.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Later that evening, Sam, Dean and Annie all sat around their motel room watching television and just plain relaxing and enjoying each other's company. Annie lay in bed, under the covers was they watched _Resident Evil_ on TV. Dean sat beside her, with his back resting up against the headboard.

As the movie came to an end, Dean let out a big yawn as he clicked off the television with the remote. Annie stretched and yawned as well. She lifted her head off her pillow and looked across the room to find Sam, already asleep, laying on top of his covers, still fully clothed. She laughed softly as she nudged Dean's leg with her elbow and nodded her head over towards Sam's sleeping form. Dean chuckled softly at his little brother.

"That sounds like a good idea," Dean said softly to Annie, as to not disturb his sleeping brother. "I'm gonna go to sleep. You should too. You need your rest," Dean said as he got up from the bed and gather his blanket and pillow from the corner of the room where he had stashed it.

Annie sat up and watched as Dean tossed his blanket and pillow onto the floor readying himself for bed. "Dean," Annie sighed. She tossed back her covers and walked over to him. "You shouldn't have to sleep on the floor because of me. So, why don't you sleep in my bed tonight, and _I'll_ sleep on the floor," she suggested.

"Psht," Dean huffed incredulously. "Like hell you are. You're hurt," Dean said. He shook his head. "No, you're not sleeping on the floor," he insisted.

"Well, neither are you," Annie replied defiantly.

Dean clamped his mouth shut, the muscles in his jaw twitching with irritation as he gave Annie a hard stare. But Annie didn't back down, she just stared right back, her green eyes flaring with the infamous stubborn Winchester attitude. They stayed like that for a few moments, neither one of them backing down.

Finally, Annie was the first to finally say something. "Okay," she sighed. "We could argue all night and then no one wins. So, what do you say we _share_the bed?" Annie suggested. "'Cause it's a pretty big bed for one person and then we both win. And no one ends up sleeping on the floor," she said.

Dean thought about it for a moment before letting out a defeated sigh. "Fine, but on one condition," he said.

"Name it."

"You stick to your side of the bed, and I'll stay to mine."

"Deal," Annie said with a nod.

With that, Dean gathered his pillow and blanket and placed them on the side of the bed closest to the door. They both settled into their sides of the bed and before long, they were both sleeping soundly.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

As always, Sam was the first one to get up that morning. He had fallen asleep during the movie and had slept all through the night. When he woke up, he realized he was still wearing his clothes from the previous day.

He groggily got up out of bed, walked past Annie's bed and went straight for the bathroom. But as soon as he stepped inside the bathroom, his sleepy mind suddenly registered what he had seen. He opened the bathroom door and stepped back out into the other room. He looked at Annie's bed and saw not one sleeping lump, but too. Sam saw Dean sleeping on his stomach on the side of the bed closest to the door. He looked over and saw that Annie was curled into a ball on her side, her back facing Dean, with the small brown teddy bear Dean had gotten her, curled under her arm and held against her chest protectively. Sam couldn't help but smile and laugh to himself at the sight.

He turned around and went back into the bathroom.

Life really was strange sometimes.

Especially for Winchesters.

* * *

**A/N**: You guys know the drill. Reviews are greatly appreciated. :D

* * *


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

**A/N**: Hey guys, I am deeply sorry for the extremely long wait for this chapter. Life has been kinda crazy lately. So please accept this nice long chapter as means of an apology. :)

* * *

The Impala hugged the curves of the asphalt that twisted and turned beneath her worn rubber tires as Dean Winchester sat behind the wheel of his beloved car. His little brother Sam sat beside him in the passenger seat and strangely enough, his daughter from twenty years in the future, sat in the backseat.

You'd think he'd find it strange, you know, meeting your future offspring and all, and sure, at first Dean was a little… _surprised_. He certainly didn't expect her to name _him_ as her father when she'd finally told them who she really was. And despite the fact that he_may_ have been a little caught off guard when he found out who she was cause—_Holy _crap_. I have a daughter—_he started to warm up to her a little after the initial shock had warn off. Before long, Dean had come to realize that Annie was actually a pretty cool kid. She had a killer taste in music, listening to only the best 80's classic rock – which, how could she _not_, being his kid and all 'cause he sure as hell wouldn't let his kid listen to that emo crap kids listened to these days. She didn't take crap from anyone, and didn't hesitate to set you straight when you were being an ass—something Dean learned _real_ quick. She was smart, which Dean figured he had to blame Sam for. And she had a great sense of humor and she seemed to know exactly what to say to get on Sam's nerves and poke fun at him, often stealing the words right from Dean's mouth-- and _that_ was just icing on the cake.

Annie sat comfortably in the backseat, a sense of familiarity washing over her as she breathed in the scents of fast food and her father and uncle's cologne that had worked their way into the leather upholstery over the years. She watched the rather monotonous scenery slip by as her warm forehead rested against the cool glass of the window. Her breath clouded the window with each rhythmic inhale, exhale. As they drove through the rural country side, that had not long ago been void of any other signs of life besides a squirrel or two, was now slowly turning into a small town with houses speckled sporadically across the land. But then suddenly Annie sat up straight and felt all the air escape and tighten in her chest as they passed a sign that said_Welcome to Lawrence_.

Dean caught Annie's surprised reaction through the rearview mirror. "You okay, Ann?" Dean asked, glancing at her through the rearview mirror.

"Fine," Annie had practically squeaked. She tried to sound confident and sure, but failed miserably.

It felt so surreal to Annie as they turned down streets and passed buildings that were so familiar to her, but yet so different. Parts of town where Annie knew there to be houses, were merely spots of grass and trees. And businesses that Annie had known to go under were still up and running. It was weird. It was like she was home, but yet, not.

But Annie couldn't help but grin when she found at least one thing had remained constant in both the past and the future. And that was Missouri Mosley's house. It looked exactly the same as Annie had remembered it-- navy blue with white shutters and lush green grass carpeting the lawn in front of the house. Two large bushes flanked either side of the front porch stairs with a row of small brightly colored flowers lining the front of the house. It gave Annie a comforting feeling of familiarity when she was in such a foreign time and place.

Dean killed the engine and he glanced at Sam and Annie before getting out of the car, Sam and Annie following his lead. Without hesitation, Sam and Dean trudged up the walkway towards the front door, with Annie falling into step in her usual place behind them.

Dean lifted his hand towards the doorbell, but his finger hovered over the button for less than a millisecond when the front door opened before Dean had the chance to ring the doorbell.

"Sam! Dean!" Missouri greeted cheerfully, enveloping Sam and then Dean into warm, welcoming embraces.

When she released the boys from their hugs, she then turned to the teenage girl standing a few feet behind them. But as soon as Missouri looked into Annie's bright emerald green eyes and picked up a few of the young girl's stray thoughts, the smile immediately dropped from Missouri's face, and suddenly took on a grave expression as she slowly brought a plump hand up to cover her mouth. "Oh my," she breathed. "Darling, you're not supposed to be here."

* * *

"And then, the next thing I know, I'm waking up in their motel room… in 2006," Annie said, finishing the tale of her time traveling journey, nursing a warm cup of coffee between her hands, made _exactly _the way she liked it—cream and lots of sugar. Annie looked down at the mug in her hand, lightly spinning and mixing it, creating a small wave of coffee to rise up and spin around the edge of the cup, before slowly bringing the cup to her lips and taking a few sips. She heaved a small contented sigh as she tasted the creamy, warm, sugary mixture on her tongue and felt it slide down her throat smoothly, warming her from the inside out.

She finally lifted her eyes and met Missouri's warm, sympathetic, honey eyes. Picking up Annie's pleading, internal questions, Missouri said sorrowfully, "I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I can't get you back home."

Annie hung her head in disappointment and nodded slowly. She knew the whole time that Missouri wouldn't be able to help her, it was too easy, but she couldn't help but hold on to that small strand of hope. And now, that small strand of hope that she had left, had all but withered away to nothingness.

"You mean you can't help us?" Dean said, his last bit of hope starting to wither away as well.

Missouri leaned back in her chair and looked over at Dean. "No, I said I couldn't get her back home. I never said I couldn't help you," the seasoned old psychic said pointedly.

"What do you mean? Help us how?" Sam asked with interest from his place beside his brother on Missouri's lumpy old couch.

"Well, it may not work entirely, but it's worth a shot," Missouri said, getting to her feet and walking over to the bookshelf filled from top to bottom with tons of ancient looking books. She scanned the shelves of the bookshelf, dragging a ruby red finger nail over the spine of the books, before she stopped and plucked the book from the shelf. "You don't know what kinda demon you're dealin' with here, right?" Missouri asked, glancing at the three Winchesters, before directing her gaze down to the book in her hand as she flipped through pages.

"Right," Sam replied.

"Well, I think there's a way for me to find that out, as long as Annie is willing," she said, casting a glance toward the youngest Winchester.

"Me? Why me?" she said, unable to help herself from casting a wary glance towards Dean and then Sam.

"Because you're the only one here that's actually gotten close enough to this thing for it to affect you," Missouri said.

Annie gulped. "Okay… What did you have in mind?"

Missouri crossed the room and sat in the arm chair across from Annie. She peered into Annie's eyes as if she were trying to penetrate her soul. "With your permission," she began, "I would like to read your mind, get a look at your memories, and see from your perspective what happened when that demon attacked you."

Annie nodded slowly, turning over the idea in her mind. It didn't sound so bad. And it was the closest that they'd ever come to finding a way to get her home. "Okay," she said contemplatively.

"But, that means that I'll have to sift through all your other memories to get to the one that we're looking for," Missouri paused for a moment, reading Annie's reaction, and probably her mind too. "Most people aren't too keen on that idea on a count that there may be some things in there that you don't want any one in the world to see," she said softly, her eyes never leaving the teenage girl before her.

Annie picked at her finger nails, and thought for a moment. Of course there were things, memories, thoughts, that Annie kept in her mind that she didn't want anyone but herself to see. It was human nature to keep secrets. And she wasn't fond of someone digging around in her head. But this was Missouri and she knew that if she swore her to secrecy, Missouri would be sure to hold on to that promise.

Annie lifted her gaze and met Missouri's warm, comforting eyes. _'I trust you_, Annie said internally, knowing that Missouri would hear her. A small smile spread across the seasoned old psychics face, spreading all the way up to her warm honey colored eyes, causing them to crinkle at the corners. Annie took in a breath, lifted her chin a little higher and said confidently, "I'll do it."

* * *

After about an hour of preparation and running through the procedure of how exactly this whole memory reading thing was going to go, they were finally ready. Missouri was in the kitchen, bending over a small pot, tossing in various herbs and spices into a pot as she stirred the concoction with a wooden spoon. Sam and Dean sat beside each other on the couch and Annie remained in the small arm chair across from them, a rectangular coffee table the only thing sitting between them.

"Are you sure you wanna do this, Ann?" Dean said, searching Annie's face, trying to read her expression.

Annie gave Dean a less than reassuring smile and nodded. She had to admit that she was getting a little anxious now. She was afraid of what Missouri might see when she went poking around in Annie's brain, because she wasn't entirely certain of what was all stored up there anymore. She wasn't one to dwell on the past and mostly focused on the here and now. There may have been things, some _bad_ things that she'd shoved to the farthest corners of her mind that she had forgotten about. But Annie bit back her apprehensiveness and put on a brave face.

"You don't have to do this ya know. We can keep digging, we can find other ways to figure this whole thing out," Dean said, because he'd known Annie long enough now to know when she was nervous, and he didn't want her to do anything that she didn't want to.

"No, it's okay. Don't worry about me, Dean, I'll be fine," Annie said confidently. "Plus," Annie added, "I don't think we can afford to be picky because we're running out of options here."

Missouri stood in the door way of the living room and called the three of them into the dining room. There was a small, white tea cup sitting on the dining table in front of an empty chair. Missouri directed Annie to that seat and sat down across the table from her. "I want you to drink that before we begin," Missouri said.

Annie picked up the tea cup and tipped it over slightly to look in at the golden colored liquid in the cup. "What is it?" Annie asked, as she brought it under her nose and took a small sniff, but immediately regretted doing so as she jerked her head back from the foul smelling drink and grimaced.

"It's a special tea I made for you. It'll clear your mind and make it easier for me to sift through your memories," Missouri explained. "Drink it," she instructed.

Annie nodded as she took in a deep breath. She slowly brought the tea cup to her lips, hesitating slightly before taking the first sip of the drink because she knew that if it smelled that horrible, she could only imagine how it would _taste_. '_Here goes nothin','_ Annie thought as she squeezed her eyes shut and knocked back the tea and slamming the cup down onto the table in one quick motion. A myriad of horrid flavors assaulted Annie's tongue as soon as the tea hit the inside of her mouth. The tea was an odd mixture of bitter, spicy, and sweet as she tried to force it down her throat. Annie could feel the tea burning all the way down to the pit of her stomach, not just from the temperature, but from whatever herbs and spices Missouri had put into that tea. As soon as the tea was free from Annie's mouth, she let out a disgusted cough as she struggled to keep the tea down.

"What the hell did you put in that crap?" Annie rasped between coughs. But before Missouri could answer, Annie held up a hand. "Never mind, I don't wanna know." Annie's tongue tingled from the ingredients that had been in the tea and it left an odd taste in her mouth.

"Honey, when has tea used for something like this ever taste _good_?" Missouri said pointedly.

Annie gave a small nod of agreement and muttered, "It'd be nice if just _once_ those magical teas wouldn't taste like ass."

Dean, who stood leaning against the doorframe, and Sam, who stood near the middle of the room, both let out a few chuckles. Annie didn't miss the disapproving look from Missouri for her choice of words, but she didn't say anything more of it, so neither would Annie.

"Alright, let's get started, shall we?" Missouri said. Annie nodded. Missouri laid both her hands, palms up, onto the table. "Now I want you to take my hands, dear," Missouri instructed softly and Annie did as she was told, taking hold of the psychic's soft hands in her own. "Now, I want you to close you eyes," Missouri said, her already hypnotic voice taking on a soothing, gentle tone. Annie took in a deep breath and cast one quick glance over to Sam and Dean, before letting her eyes fall shut. "Now, I want you to clear your mind. Just relax, and let whatever it is that may be troubling you, whatever it is that your thinking, I just want you to let it go. Just concentrate on my voice and clear your mind," Missouri said in a low, soothing voice. And surprisingly, Annie did. She just let her mind go blank and relaxed as she latched onto only Missouri's soft voice.

And suddenly, it was like Annie was standing in a movie theater with a giant screen and the movie she was watching was her life, her memories. She stood there as she saw snippets of her memories, changing quickly as if her mind was on TiVo, fast forwarding to the good parts. The memories weren't bad; actually, they were pretty good. Annie saw the memory of her Dad teaching her how to ride a bike when she was five. She did rather well until she couldn't figure out how to stop and drove right into the side of the Impala, causing her to fall to the ground in a heap of padding and cheap aluminum. Her Dad ran over to her and made sure she was okay before checking out his beloved car to make sure Annie's collision hadn't left any scratches in the shiny, black exterior. Annie couldn't help but smile and shake her head at how much her Dad loved that car.

Then the scene changed and the memories flipped by rapidly. When they stopped, she saw herself standing outside in a wide open field, with her Dad and Uncle Sam. Dean placed a shotgun in a wide-eyed Annie's hands. Annie looked at herself and thought she couldn't have been no more than 15 or 16 years old. It was then that Annie realized that this was the memory of the first time that she'd ever fired a gun.

She saw targets lined up at the other end of the field. Dean gripped her by the shoulders and led Annie over to a particular part of the field so she was in line with the target closest to them. The target, that had a tattered old piece of paper with brightly colored rings on it and multiple bullet holes tacked to it, was about 25 yards away. Dean stood beside Annie and took the gun from her hands, to show her the proper way to hold a shotgun. Annie nodded her head and made a few confirmatory noises in order to let her Dad know that she was listening eagerly. Then Dean handed the gun over to Annie. She took it from her Dad, her hands shaking ever so slightly at the fact that she had a loaded weapon in her hands. She never so much as held a gun, let alone fired it.

Annie lifted the shotgun, rested the butt of the gun against her right shoulder and held onto the gun by the stock, mirroring her father's previous stance. With a few suggestions here and there, her Dad gave his approval on Annie's posture. "Now," her Dad said. "Cock the gun, aim at that target right there, and shoot," he said, pointing to the target in front of them.

"Huh?" Annie squeaked, her eyes growing as wide as saucers. She knew that they were there for her to learn how to fire a gun, just in case the moment arrived where she'd have to know how to protect herself, but she wasn't sure she was entirely ready to actually shoot at a target.

"Well, you didn't think we'd come all the way out here just to _hold_ the gun, now did you?" Dean said with a chuckle. "Now just pull that back," Dean instructed Annie patiently as he pointed to the stock. Annie slowly did as she was told, pulling back the stock and growing a little frantic when she heard the gun snapping a bullet into place to be fired. She saw a small smile tugging at the corner of her Dad's lips. "Calm down, just as long as you don't got that thing pointed at anyone, you've got nothing to worry about," he said comfortingly.

Annie swallowed the lump in her throat and took a small shuttering breathe before nodding her head. She took in a deep breathe as she raised the gun, holding it the way her Dad taught her, and aimed at the target in front of her. Annie could feel her father's eyes, who stood right behind her, boring into her back, watching her intently as she held a loaded weapon in her hands. Truth be told, it was a little unnerving. She curled her right index finger around the trigger and couldn't help but squeeze her eyes shut as she pulled the trigger.

Luckily her father was standing right behind her, because the back fire of the gun had caught Annie completely off guard and sent her tumbling backwards, right into Dean's arms. "You okay, kiddo?" Dean asked, look down at Annie.

Annie's eyes were wide with surprise as she blinked a few times, stared down at the shotgun in her hands and then back up her Dad, before letting out a shaky laugh. "Yeah, I'm okay," Annie said with a grin and a glint in her eyes.

Dean looked at her uncertainly for a moment before asking, "Do you want to stop?"

"No," Annie immediately replied. "I want to try again." And again and again and again. The feeling of the gun in her hands as she pulled the trigger was exhilarating. The sudden blast of the gun sent a trill of adrenaline coursing through her veins and Annie didn't want that feeling to go away. It was invigorating.

"Okay, if you want to," Dean said. He stood behind Annie again as she took her stance, this time, planting her feet firmly to the ground, readying herself for the kickback of the gun. But Dean stood a few feet behind Annie too, just incase she wasn't as firmly planted as he assumed.

Annie raised the gun once again, and aimed at the target. Her finger brushed across the trigger and pulled it back, but this time she kept her eyes open as she fired the gun. Annie staggered a little from the kick of the gun, but other than that, she stayed relatively stable; the jolt of the gun every time she fired it was something she was going to have to get used.

Annie heaved a contented sigh as she looked down the field at the target that had one new bullet hole decorating its tattered brightly colored paper. She turned her gaze down to the gun in her hands eyeing it almost disbelievingly. She never would've imagined herself firing a gun before now. She was just a normal, boring teenager before, but now she was a hunter-in-training.

Annie snapped the safety back into place, like her Dad had taught her, before lowering it and pointing it towards the ground. She turned around to face her father. His eyes sparkled with nothing other than sheer, unabashed pride as huge grin adorned his face.

Annie, the one in the present watching her own memories flash before her eyes, felt a great sense of pride and happiness swell inside her chest as she watched the memory of that fateful day in the field with her family, come to a close. It was such a great day, one that she would never forget.

But then slowly, Annie felt that sense of joy slip away from her, and steadily being replaced with fear, anger, and agony. When she looked back up at the so called "screen", she realized why.

She saw the eight year old version of herself swinging lightly on the swing set at school. It was recess, and normally she would be over with her best friends Emily and Evan, playing four squares, but today she just wasn't in the mood. Her small hands gripped the cool metal chains on either side of her as she idly swung back and forth, her sneakers scraping against the wood chips beneath her feet as she did so. Annie was staring off into space, watching the clouds being pushed across the grey sky by the cool November air, when she heard, "Hey, Winchester!", snapping her out of her reverie. Annie immediately recognized the voice and inwardly groaned as she came back to reality and saw Michael Seffola striding across the playground, heading straight for her.

Michael Seffola was the only person that Annie truly ever hated. He'd failed the fourth grade, so that made him a year older than everyone else, and made him think it gave him the right to bully everyone around. Most of the time, he didn't bother much with Annie, he mostly picked on the kids that stood off by themselves against the wall, watching everyone else play games during recess. But on rare occasions when Michael stopped picking on the kids standing by the wall, or got bored with terrorizing the other fourth graders out on the soccer field, he would take it upon himself to make Annie's life a living hell. Like today.

"Hey, Winchester! I'm talkin' to you," Michael he shouted glowering at Annie as she stayed swaying back and forth slightly on the swing.

"Leave me alone, Michael," Annie sighed. She really wasn't in the mood to put up his crap today.

"_Leave me alone, Michael_," he mimicked. "God, Winchester, you're so pathetic," he sneered, letting out a loud bark of laughter. "Nice shoes," Michael said sarcastically, eyeing Annie's dirty old converse sneakers condescendingly as he kicked Annie's feet. "Where'd you get 'em, Goodwill?" he said derisively, with one eyebrow raised. "I bet that loser of a Dad you've got picked 'em out for you," Michael said.

Annie's grasp on the chains of the swing turned into a white knuckled grip as she struggled to reign in her anger. Normally, she just shrugged it off and ignored him, but today he was being exceptionally persistent and cruel, determined to make her crack and tried to break her down as far as she would go. Annie clenched her jaw as she glowered at Michael for him even _daring_ to touch on the subject of her family.

Michael scoffed at Annie, bending lower so they were eye to eye. "Your Dad's even more pathetic that you are, Winchester," he said. "Your Mom's lucky she's dead 'cause now she can't be stuck with that stupid, pathetic, lo--."

Michael's words were lost in his throat because something inside Annie just _snapped_. Before she even realized she was doing, she'd launched herself off of the swing and tackled the large, usually intimidating boy to the hard, concrete ground and just began _wailing_ on him, swinging her fists through the air, pounding her fists against his face and stomach as hard as she could as bitter tears streamed down her face. But Michael fought back, swinging his fists through the air defensively.

After the fight was over (that took two recess aids to tear the fighting fourth graders apart), Annie and Michael sat solemnly outside the principal's office, ice packs pressed to their rapidly swelling faces. Although Annie did most of the swinging, Michael had snuck in a few punches which resulted in Annie having a busted lip and a bruised eye. But Michael had gotten the brunt of the beating, leaving him with a bloody nose, a busted lip, two bruised eyes and scratch on his forehead.

Annie had her eyes cast downward at the grey-blue carpeting, when she heard the familiar thunk of heavy, boot covered footfalls against the floor. Annie's stomach dropped to the floor when she heard her father's frantic voice. "Annie?" She looked up at her Dad, her left eye already started to swell closed. He knelt down in front of her and gently hooked his finger under her chin and lifted it so he could get a good look at the damage. "Jesus," he muttered as he looked at his bruised and battered eight year old daughter. Then Dean glanced over at Michael at the far end of the bench. Upon realizing that he was worse off than Annie was, he gazed at Annie with narrow, suspicious eyes.

Dean and Annie had been called into Principal Freely's office for them to discuss Annie's punishment. Annie didn't dare meet her father's eyes throughout the entire meeting; she just kept her gaze trained to the floor. Annie had been sentenced with two days of suspension for fighting in school. And as Dean led Annie out the school, she hung her head shamefully as she felt the anger and utter disappointment radiating off of her father.

When they arrived home after the longest and most awkwardly silent drive in Annie's entire life, Dean parked the car in the driveway and turned it off, but didn't get out. He just stared forward out the windshield. He blinked a few times before turning to face his daughter. "What happened, Annie? Why did you hit that kid?" he asked, truly wanting to know. Annie wasn't the kind of girl that started fights at school or got in trouble. She was a rather level-headed girl; it was something her Dad numerously said that she thankfully inherited from her Uncle Sammy.

Annie just shrugged in reply. She didn't want to tell him. She didn't want her Dad to know all the horrible things Michael had said about their family.

Dean heaved a heavy sigh. "Please, Annie, tell me what he did." But Annie didn't say anything, just looked at her hands resting in her lap and shook her head. "Fine," Dean sighed. "Then you're grounded for two months," he said, the reluctance in Annie's punishment evident in his voice. Annie looked up at him with wide eyes, but then sighed and nodded as she hung her head again.

It was Annie's first grounding. And Dean never did find out why Annie beat up Michael Seffola.

Annie squeezed her eyes shut and turned away from the bitter scene before her. Her hands trembled with anger and sadness at what she'd seen. It wasn't a memory she wasn't very fond of. The look of pure disappointment on her Dad's face hurt a million times worse than anything Michael could have said. She just hated to know that she let her father down like that.

When Annie opened her eyes again she saw her twelve year old self standing in the kitchen with her Dad. She could tell that it was October by the small amount of Halloween decorations that her father and uncle had reluctantly let her put up.

"Come on, Dad. Please?" young Annie begged, clasping her hands together under her chin and giving her Dad the good old puppy dog eyes.

"Annie, I said no," Dean said in an authoritative tone.

"But why?" she whined.

"Because I said so," Dean said, getting angrier and angrier by the minute because Annie would just not _let it go_.

"But all my friends go out trick or treating without _their _parents. I don't get why I can't go with them too," Annie said exasperatedly.

"Annie, I _told_you, I don't want you out there on Halloween without an adult," Dean replied.

"Dad, it's Lawrence, what's the worst that could happen?" Annie said pointedly.

But Dean shot Annie a look that she couldn't quite understand, before speaking firmly, "I said no, Annie, end of discussion."

Annie glared at her father as she let out a frustrated groan and stamped her foot on the floor like a petulant child. "I don't get what your problem is. You treat me like a little kid! I'm twelve years old, Dad. I'm old enough to go out with my friends without having _you_ following me around wherever I go! You never let me do _anything_ fun. _God_! I just wish you would leave me alone! I hate you!" Annie shouted furiously, before stomping out of the room and up to her room, slamming the door behind her.

But as young Annie stalked out of the room, older Annie didn't miss the look on her father's face as the dreaded words, "I hate you" came out of the younger version of her self's mouth. It was as if the words had quite literally slapped him across the face. He adorned a look of pure betrayal and heartbreak at the extremely harsh words his daughter had spoken to him. And it felt like a knife to the heart for Annie to see her father so completely broken and disconcerted. She just wanted to reach through the time and memories and wrap her arms around her Dad and tell him that she was sorry and that she didn't mean the horrible things her young self had said; she wanted to tell him that she didn't hate him; it just wasn't possible to hate someone that she loved more than life itself, that loved _her_ more than life itself.

Annie buried her face in her hands as she felt her heart shatter into a million pieces and the tears stream down her face. How could she have been so absolutely_cruel_ to her Dad like that? At that age she was completely oblivious to the things out there hiding in the dark. But even so, couldn't she see that he was just trying to protect her? Annie heaved a heavy, deeply saddened sigh. How could she have been such a blind, selfish little brat?

Annie took in a shaky breathe as she turned her tear filled eyes up at the screen, dreading what the next memory would show.

She warily looked up at the memory and saw herself stepping down a small flight of stairs into a large room. It was dark and dusty and there were broken, rusted pieces of machinery lying everywhere. Annie immediately recognized the scenery. She was in the factory where she'd gotten attack by the demon, the one that sent her twenty years into the past. Annie looked at the scene carefully for anything that she may have missed the first time around.

She watched the beam of her flashlight sweep across the room before it flickered and died out completely. "Damn it," Annie breathed as she smacked the flashlight against the palm of her hand, hoping if she hit it the right way, it would come back to life. But the flashlight failed to come back on and she'd been hunting long enough to know that that was never a good sign. With her .45 pistol in hand, Annie cautiously ventured across the room. As Annie took careful steps around dilapidated pieces of machinery at her feet, she suddenly got the heavy feeling of eyes on her back, like she was being watched from the murky depths of the shadows that surrounded her. But before she could turn around to investigate, everything went black as she felt a sharp pain on the back of her head.

Annie's eyes snapped opened and she found herself staring straight ahead into Missouri Moseley's honey colored eyes. Her breathe was coming in quick, short rasps as her heart hammered inside her chest. Annie realized she and Missouri were still holding hands. She quickly pulled her hands away from the seasoned old psychic's grasp as if it burned her.

Annie's mind raced frantically with thoughts of what she'd seen, what she'd felt in the memory of when she'd been attacked. Even the second time around witnessing her attack, she still wasn't sure what had happened. But one thing was sure, the second time around she felt a… presence, one that she hadn't felt before. This was far more frightening than the immense feeling of being watched that made the hairs on the back of her head stand on end. This was pure _evil_. And quite frankly, it freaked Annie the hell out.

And Annie's fear was evident to everyone else in the room as well.

"Annie?" Dean said warily, stepping away from the doorway and standing up to his full height. "You okay?"

Annie looked up at Dean for the first time and looked at him as if she'd just realized he was there. Dean was startled by the look of sheer panic in his daughter's bright green eyes. He'd never seen her look so frightened before; she was always content and unwavering. But as quickly as it had come, the fear was gone just as fast, hidden by a blank mask.

Annie pushed away from the table, stood up and swiftly walked past Sam and Dean. "I'm going for a walk," Annie called over her shoulder that was punctuated with the firm sound of the front door slamming closed behind her.

Dean made to go after her, but Missouri stopped him. "Let her go," she said softly. "That girl needs some time to herself."

* * *

The cold air stung Annie's lungs as she ran, feeling like icy cold knives inside her throat with each breath she took, but she didn't care. She just needed to get away, get away as far from the past, the memories, and her family as fast as she could. She felt bad leaving so abruptly, she was sure that Sam and Dean were probably concerned, but she couldn't stand being in the same room with them. Not yet, at least. It hurt too much.

The memories seemed to haunt her, even with her eyes wide open, with the concrete sidewalk beneath her feet and the bare tree limbs hanging over head._Everything_ around her reminded her of _something_. The town around her held memories that had yet to happen, but still resounded wholly within Annie's mind. And no matter how far she ran, they just seemed to follow her relentlessly—_mercilessly._

Annie's running slowed down to a mellower pace as she ambled along on the sidewalk blindly, not even having to look up at the street signs to know where she was going. She'd know how to get there in her _sleep_.

When she stopped walked, she stood in front of a gray two story house. Two bushes sat on either side of the front porch stairway that was painted white. The house wasn't large, but it wasn't small. It was the perfect size for a family of three or four. It was this very house that Annie had come to know as home. It was the house that she had taken her first steps in, said her first words in, it was in that very tree in the front yard that Annie had broken her first bone after she had decided to climb it, but slipped and fell to the hard ground below, landing on her right arm in just the right way that would case her ulna to snap in two. This house was her home, but yet, not. Two unfamiliar cars were parked in the driveway, and a basketball net that Annie had never remembered to be there, sat all by it's lonesome off to the side. Annie stood on the sidewalk with her hands buried into her pockets, contemplating on whether or not to go and knock on the front door, just out of curiosity as to who the previous owners of her future home were. But she knew that, unless her father or uncle, the ones that she'd grown up with in that house, were to open the door, she couldn't care less as to who lived there.

Annie heaved a sigh as she stole one final glance at the house, before walking down the sidewalk in the direction that she had come. She turned down a different street and walked until she found herself standing in the local park. It was small, having only just one tall metal slide and swing set with only three swings. Two large oak trees stood on either side of the small playground. They were perfect for blocking out the sun with their large branches and lush green leaves during the summer, providing a cool and comfortable area beneath the high canopies of the trees. Annie smiled fondly as she remembered lazy summer afternoons that she spent with her father when she was young. After lunch time, she and Dean would venture hand in hand down to the park to play for a bit and relax in the warm sunshine. It was times like that when things were so much simpler. When Annie didn't have to worry about ghosts, demons, or high school. When it would just be her and her Dad and her Uncle Sammy, being a safe, happy family.

Annie found a near by park bench and sat down. She rubbed her hands over her face as she groaned. She didn't know how things had gotten so completely_ screwed up_. Annie always wished that she could go back in time and relive the simpler moments in life, but this was taking it a bit _much_.

Annie sat silently by herself for a while, just trying to clear her head of the dark memories that seemed to hang over her when she felt that familiar feeling of being watched. But she pushed down that faint rush of fear that welled up inside of her when she realized she had nothing to worry about. "You gonna stand there all day, or are you gonna sit down?" Annie called, without even looking over her shoulder.

She heard heavy booted footfalls against the soggy damp grass before Dean came to sit down beside her on the bench. He didn't look at her, or say anything for a moment, just sat there silently. But he couldn't take the silence any longer. "How'd you know it was me?" he asked curiously.

"I heard you."

"But how'd you know it was _me_?" Dean said again.

Annie sighed softly. "Because you walk like your boots are made of lead. As apposed to Sam… well, his footsteps are a bit more… lighter, I guess." She shrugged her shoulders slightly and looked over at Dean for the first time. "I just knew it was you," she said simply.

Dean looked at Annie appraisingly with a small smile. "You know me pretty well, huh?"

Annie shrugged again. "I've known you my whole life. I've grown up with you. I know everything there is to know about you; well I'd like to think so, at least. So… yeah, I guess you could say I know you pretty well," Annie said.

Dean nodded his head and they sat in a comfortable silence for a moment.

"That house you were standing in front of, that one down the street," Dean said, nodding his in the direction he'd come from after following Annie when his concern got the better of him. "You seemed like you knew the place…"

Annie didn't say anything, just kept her eyes trained downward as she found interest in a rock next to her foot and began to roll it around beneath her shoe.

"That was our house, wasn't it?" Dean said, already knowing the answer.

Annie looked up and met Dean's eyes. She didn't say anything, because he shouldn't know that. He shouldn't know where they're gonna live someday, but she figured that he's already certain, and there's no way to tell him other wise now. Annie's mouth twisted into a kind of smile and begrudgingly nodded her head. And Dean nodded his, almost as confirmation that he understood what it meant and that it's something they could talk about.

And for a long moment, Annie and Dean are quiet, mulling around in their own thoughts. But then Dean turned towards Annie slightly, mouth open like he wanted to say something, but then clamped it shut and looked back down at the ground. Annie looked at him curiously; head tilted to the side slightly and said, "What?"

Dean looked back up at Annie and just shook his head. "Nothin'."

"No, you were going to say something. What were going to say?" Annie pressed.

Dean met Annie's eyes, eyes that mirror his own. And for a moment, Annie thought he wasn't going to say anything, but then he opened his mouth and said slowly, "I was just wondering…"

"Yes?" Annie urged.

"Am— Am I a good dad?" Dean asked so softly, that Annie wasn't sure she heard him correctly. He looked up at Annie for a second with what looked almost like a grimace, as if he was afraid to hear the answer, and then turned away.

Annie sighed and said reproachfully, "What kind of question is that?" Dean looked back over at Annie and she shook her head as if he just said that unicorns were real and leprechauns dance around pots of gold.

Annie edged closer to Dean and wrapped her arm around his broad shoulders. She looked right into Dean's piercing green eyes and said softly, "You're the best Dad a girl could ask for. I love you more than anything in the world. There's _nothing_ I wouldn't do for you, and I know there's _nothing_ you wouldn't do for me." Annie paused a moment before continuing. "So, no, you're not a good Dad," she said, and she watched Dean's face fall slightly. "You're a_great _Dad," Annie said with a wide grin.

And Dean couldn't help but feel a bright smile spread across his face and an immense sense of satisfaction settle in his chest because he'd never imagined himself living long enough to have kids, but he told himself that if he did get the chance, he was going to make sure his kids had a hell of a better childhood than he had. He was going to be a better Dad to his kids than his Dad was to him and Sam.

And by the looks of things, he'd done just that. And he couldn't help but feel like it was nothing short of a miracle.

* * *

**A/N: **Reviews are more than greatly appreciated. :D


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer**: I only own Annie. _Supernatural_ and everything you recognize belong to Kripke & Co. He also owns my soul, but that's another story.  
**Warnings**: No spoilers really unless you haven't seen season 1.

**A/N**: Hi guys! waves like a maniac It's certainly been a LONG time.And first off, I just wanted to say that I'm _really really REALLY_ sorry about that. I really am. I feel horrible just _stopping_ half way through the fic to take a break (I know I hate it when a fic I'm reading goes on break) but I have to say that it was absolutely necessary. My brain was just mush by the end of last school year and my muse ran away for a long time. It didn't decide to come back until like August, so that's why I didn't update once school was over. I slowly worked out this chapter, but I had decided _just incase_ my muse decided to bail on me again, I would work out chapter 15 before I posted 14 so you wouldn't be waiting another million years to get the next chapter.

It's safe to say that as of right now, my muse has stuck around and is has actually gotten a little crazy. Hopefully she sticks around. It's so good to be back in the SPN fandom and writing again and it's just so refreshing.I've certainly missed it a ton.

I know you guys want me to shut up so you can FINALLY read the next chapter, but I have to give a big thanks to my own little cheerleader, **silentpixiee**. She really has helped me through a lot of things this year and she has been encouraging me nonstop. So thank you darling for being just so absolutely wonderful! I love you like a fangirl loves the Winchesters. :)

I hope you guys enjoy the long awaited chapter. :)

* * *

**Chapter 14**

Dean and Annie had stepped inside Missouri's home, from outside the cool autumn air, with small smiles on their faces and appeared to be holding up a small conversation. Sam stood up from his place at the kitchen table where he'd been talking with Missouri, trying to pin point what kind of demon they were dealing with. He walked over to Dean and Annie and looked at his future niece cautiously before saying, "Is everything okay?"

Annie looked up at Sam and gave him a small reassuring smile. "Yeah, I'm fine." She peeled off her jacket and hung it on the coat wrack by the front door. Dean pulled off his jacket as well and Annie took it from him and hung it up. "I'm sorry I took off like that. I was just so overwhelmed with the whole thing... I kinda freaked out," Annie said with a frown as she followed Sam and Dean into the dining room where Missouri sat at the table with a large variety of books splayed out on the surface.

"Don't apologize, child, you've got a lotta memories with a whole lotta emotions attached to 'em," Missouri said. "It's only natural to feel overwhelmed."

"That's one way to put it," Annie muttered as she scratched the back her neck as a sign of her self-consciousness; it was a mannerism neither Sam nor Dean missed and Sam couldn't help but make a mental note that he'd seen his brother do the exact same thing many times before.

Dean could tell that Missouri's statement had caused Annie to venture into uncomfortable waters, so he promptly cleared his throat to indicate a subject change. "So," he said, and Sam and Missouri looked at him. But Missouri looked at him knowingly, with a smile grin blossoming on her face, which made Dean avert his gaze and scratch the back of his neck unconsciously. Dean looked back up at them again and continued. "Do you two have any idea what we're dealing with?" he asked looking from his brother to Missouri.

Sam sighed as he sat back down at the table across from Missouri, sliding a book closer to him. "No."

"What about you Missouri?" Dean said, looking to the seasoned old psychic.

"I'm not sure," she replied slowly. "The presence I felt in Annie's memories feels… familiar. But yet… different." She paused. "I'm not quite sure how to read it," Missouri said. Then Missouri cast a sideways glance at Annie who had taken a seat beside her at the table. She lifted her chin slightly and studied the teenager with narrowed eyes. "What about you, Annie, darling?" Missouri said. "What do you think?"

Annie's eyebrows shot up. "Me?" she said, pointing at herself.

"Yeah, you," Missouri replied. "What are you thinkin'?"

One of Annie's eyebrows rose incredulously. "Like you don't already know," she scoffed. Missouri shot Annie a _look_, and Annie didn't have to be a mind reader to know what it meant.

"Alright, alright, if I must," Annie said with a sigh. She bit her lip and thought for a moment. "It's weird..." she started. "I remember getting attacked by the demon, I remember everything leading up to it... But seeing it for the second time around, it seemed... different," she said.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"I mean... I don't know what I mean," Annie said with a frustrated sigh. "It was just... _different_ the second time around." Annie paused to try to make sense of her thoughts. "It was like... It was like watching a movie you've already seen before. You already know what's going to happen, so you find yourself more aware of the little details, details that you wouldn't have noticed the first time around." Annie paused for a moment looked up into Sam and Dean's eyes. "I noticed something that I didn't notice before," she said. "It's strange. I could feel the... presence—I guess you could call it—of the demon that attacked me—that was nothing new. I'd felt that before. But the whole thing was different because it almost felt like there was... something _else_ there—like it wasn't just me and the demon that sent me here. And I'm pretty sure I would remember having that feeling the first time around."

"Why do you say that?" Dean asked.

"Because this presence was so much... _darker_ than that demon. This thing was _evil_. I don't know how else to describe it," Annie said. "But whatever it was, I didn't like it, not one bit," Annie said, giving a barely visible shudder, but it was enough for Sam, Dean and Missouri to notice.

"Don't worry Ann," Dean said reassuringly. "Whatever this new thing is, we'll take care of it." Dean glanced over at his brother and Sam took that as his cue to nod in agreement.

"We won't let anything happen to you," Sam said soothingly, but with a slight protective edge to it.

Annie gave them a warm smile. "I know," she replied.

Dean went to open his mouth to say something, but Missouri promptly cut him off. "Don't even think about it, boy!" she snapped, pointing a finger at him as she glared. "You three should know by now that you're always welcome here. You're not gonna go stay in no scummy motel tonight. Not if I can help it," Missouri said firmly.

Dean's mouth just kind of hung open for a moment before he clamped it shut with an audible snap. Annie glanced over at Sam and they broke out into quiet snickers. Missouri was one of the few people that either one had seen tell Dean what to do that he would actually listen to.

"Really, Missouri, we appreciate your hospitality, but we don't want to intrude," Sam said gratefully.

"Intrude?" Missouri said looking at Sam incredulously. "Boy, it's a little too late for that," she said, but without rancor. "I've got two spare bedrooms upstairs; there's plenty of room for you three." She reached across the table and touched the back of Sam's hand, her mannerism turning more nurturing and motherly. "Really, Sam, it's no trouble at all. I'd be glad to have you, your brother, and your niece stay here."

"Thank you," Sam replied.

"Yes, Missouri, thank you," Annie said as well.

"We better go get our stuff then," Dean announced as he stood up and made his way towards the door.

The three returned into the house with their duffel bags in hand. And as soon as Annie stepped through the front door, she shouted, "First dibs on the shower!" before taking off up the stairs before Dean or Sam could beat her there.

"Hey!" Dean called after his future daughter, following with a few unintelligible curses muttered under his breathe.

Sam just laughed. Oh yeah, that girl was _definitely_ a Winchester.

* * *

Annie stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She dropped her bag on the tile floor. She leaned back against the door and closed her eyes and sighed, savoring the moment of solitary peace. She'd always been one that liked her privacy. When she was home, she'd often spend most of her time alone in her room with music blaring from her stereo. But she had learned quickly in spending time with the younger versions of her father and uncle and living on the road, that privacy was a privilege that was rare to come by when living out of one shabby motel room after another. In fact, she was sure that this was her first time being truly alone in days.

Annie picked her bag up off the floor and set it down on top of the lid of the toilet seat. She pulled out her toiletries and set them on the edge of the sink. But Annie paused when she caught a glimpse of her reflection. Annie couldn't remember the last time she'd _really_ stopped to look at herself in the mirror. Her skin was sallow, pale and shiny. Dark circles swept under her green eyes that weren't as bright as they usually were. It made her look like she hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks—which she was pretty sure she hadn't. Her dark hair looked stringy, greasy and unkempt in the ponytail that she had haphazardly tossed up.

To put it simply, she looked like hell. And she felt like it too.

Annie carefully peeled off her shirt and tossed it onto the bathroom floor. She turned and examined her injured shoulder. Getting hit by that ratchet a few days ago sure did a number on her. She had to endure Dean stitching her up, infection, and the constant burning, tender pain in her shoulder every time she moved. She lightly prodded the area of the wound with her fingers. The skin was healing rather well; she could already see the skin was healing into a nice pink scar. A hiss escaped her lips as she pulled lightly on her stitches. By the time she has pulled out most of the stitches, her upper arm was very sore. She rolled her shoulder around a little to loosen the muscles before stripping off the rest of her clothes and stepping into the shower.

The warm water felt fantastic on her tired, worn body. It loosened the tight muscles in her shoulders and back that had formed from spending endless hours in the Impala. And this was probably Annie's first real shower in over a month, a shower that actually had some pressure to it—that _didn't_ trickle murky brown water out of the shower head—or didn't scald you when someone _across town_ flushed the toilet. She savored her time in the shower as much as she could. She decided she should get out of the shower when she realized that her skin was getting all pruney. She dried herself off and pulled on her sweats.

Annie ran her hair brush through her freshly cleaned locks and stepped out of the bathroom. She walked down the hall with her duffel in hand. She followed the sound of Sam and Dean's voices and found them setting their things up in one of the spare bedrooms. Their room had two twin beds in it and a few knick knacks here and there. Dean took the bed closest to the door—big surprise there.

She knocked lightly on the door frame and stood in the door way. Sam and Dean turned at the sound and looked over at Annie. "Took you long enough!" Dean said. "Did you leave us any hot water?" he asked irritably, but with a playful smirk on his face. Annie just rolled her eyes. Dean grabbed his bag and gave her a light nudge with his elbow as he walked past her towards the bathroom.

"Your room is down the hall. We thought we'd let you have a little privacy," Sam said nodding his head in the direction of Annie's room.

"Thanks," she said with a smile as she stepped out of the room and ventured down the hall to her room.

To her left, she found another room. She turned the door knob and stepped inside. A wooden rocking chair sat in the corner beside the window. A single bed sat in the center of the room. It was a simple room, but it would be just fine. It supplied her with a bed and some privacy and that was all that mattered to her right now. Annie set her bag down on the trunk that sat at the foot of her bed and threw herself down onto the springy mattress. She just laid there and stared up at the ceiling. She wasn't sure how long she'd been lying there, or when she'd fallen asleep, but when she opened her eyes, she saw Sam open the door slightly and poke his head inside.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Sam exclaimed. "I didn't realize you were sleeping. Go back to sleep, I'll come back later," Sam said hurriedly.

"No, Sam, its okay, come in," Annie said, blinking her eyes and rubbing them with the back of her hand as she sat up.

"No, go back to sleep," Sam said again.

"No, I wasn't sleeping, I was just resting my eyes," Annie insisted.

Sam shot her an incredulous look that was complete with a raised eyebrow and his arms folded across his chest. "You're just as stubborn as your father," Sam stated with a smirk.

Annie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, I was asleep-- but I didn't mean to be," she added quickly. She patted the mattress beside her and beckoned for Sam to have a seat. He softened as a smile spread across his face and sat down beside his niece. Annie noticed that Sam's hair was damp and had changed into his night clothes. That meant that Dean had finished his shower and Sam had already had his turn. She hadn't been asleep _that_ long, had she?

"What's up, Sammy?"

He glanced at her sideways as if he was studying her, testing her stability. Finally he lifted his head and looked right into her bright green eyes. He noticed that there was a sparkle and liveliness there that he hadn't seen before, like the shower she had taken had washed away all of the dark and worrying residue. But something inside him said that it wasn't the shower that had washed it all away.

"I just wanted to see how you were," Sam said.

"I'm fine."

Sam looked at her a little uncertainly. He'd heard that phrase come out of his brother's mouth so many times before, and little red flags couldn't help but go up because with Dean it was more of a cop out and an attempt to deflect Sam's infamous need to talk things through. But Sam looked a little closer at Annie and saw the sparkle in her eyes was unwavering and that a small smile graced her face and the genuineness in her voice registered in Sam's mind and he realized that she was telling the truth. She really was okay. Sam returned Annie's smile with his own and nodded. "Okay, are you sure?" he said, just to double check.

Annie reached over and touched Sam's arm. "Sam, really, I'm okay. You really need to stop worrying so much," she said good naturedly.

Sam looked at Annie with narrowed eyes. "Why? Am I gonna have a stroke or something in the future because I worry?"

"No, it's just annoying having to repeat the words 'I'm fine' a million times a day," Annie replied with a crooked smile. "Trust me, if there's something wrong, you will be the first to know about it," she said with wide eyes and talking slowly as if she were speaking to a five year old.

Sam chuckled. "Okay, good."

There was a soft knock on the door before Dean turned the door knob and poked his head into the room. He swung the door open fully and stood in the door way. "Oh did I interrupt you girls painting your nails and talking about the cute boy that lives down the block?" Dean teased.

Sam and Annie sent Dean a matching pair of bitchfaces and then simultaneously said, "Shut up," in the same annoyed tone.

Dean just chuckled and waved them off. "Goodnight," he called over his shoulder as he retreated down the hall towards his and Sam's room.

Sam and Annie laughed quietly to themselves. "That's your brother," she said with a faintly pitiful look.

"That's your father," Sam retaliated with a grin.

"Yeah, I know, don't rub it in," Annie said quickly with a grimace. With the flick of her eyebrow her grimace twisted into a grin.

Sam stood up from the bed. He lightly placed his hand on Annie's shoulder and looked down at her. "Goodnight, Annie," he said giving her shoulder a light squeeze before heading towards to door.

"'Night, Sammy."

* * *

The sunlight was streaming through the gap in between the thin curtains in bright yellow rays. It hit the glass of water on the bedside table in just right way to make it cast beautiful little rainbows onto the ceiling. Annie laid on her side, buried beneath the covers, blinking in the wake of the bright sunlight. She groaned and rolled onto her stomach and then stuck her head beneath the pillow. She wasn't ready to wake up yet. She'd had the best night of sleep she'd had in months and she wanted to milk it for all it was worth. Annie pulled her head out from under the pillow and turned to look at the alarm clock on the bedside table. The red glowing numbers on the digital alarm clock told her that it was 10 o'clock.

Annie had to do a double take. Ten o'clock? She never slept in that late, not even when she was at home. She jumped out of bed and ran downstairs. Annie found Sam and Dean with their heads in a book. They both looked up, and Dean's expression seemed to brighten at the sight of her. "Look who finally decided to get their ass outta bed," Dean said by way of greeting. "Nice hair," Dean said with a chuckle, noting Annie severe case of bed-head.

Sam let out a few soft laughs. "Morning."

"Why did you guys let me sleep in so late?" Annie asked as she used the hair tie on her wrist to toss her hair up into a ponytail.

"We thought we'd let you get some rest. You've looked like hell lately. It looked like you needed some of your beauty sleep," Dean replied.

"Gee, thanks, how kind of you," Annie dead panned.

"Well aren't you a ray of sunshine this morning," Sam said with a smirk.

Annie rolled her eyes and sat down at the table with them. "Did you find anything?" she asked. Sam and Dean shook their heads sorrowfully. Annie sighed and shrugged. "I figured as much."

Before the thought fully formed in Annie's mind, Missouri stepped out of the kitchen and placed a plate with scrambled eggs—her favorite—and lightly buttered toast on the table in front of her, accompanied with a glass of orange juice. Annie looked at the food, taken aback, and looked up at Missouri. "Wow! You're good!" she said with a surprise. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, sweetheart," Missouri said with a smile. "I'm glad you're up, because I wasn't sure if I could let these two rummage through my books aimlessly any longer," she said nodding her head towards Sam and Dean as she sat down at the table. Sam and Dean's brows furrowed in confusion as they closed their books simultaneously. Annie's head tilted to the side slightly and she looked at Missouri in confusion. "What are you talking about?" Annie asked as she stabbed some of her scrambled eggs with her fork and took a bite.

"I think I know what kind of demon we're dealing with," Missouri stated.

Annie froze with her fork half way down to her plate and her head snapped up to look at the psychic. "You do?" Annie exclaimed with wide eyes. She honestly hadn't meant to say it as loud as she did, but they were possibly on the verge of a huge breakthrough!

Missouri nodded once. "Dean, sweetie, could you get me that large leather-bound book on the top shelf?" she asked, pointing over to the tall bookshelf against the wall. Annie smirked when she heard him mutter something along the lines of, "Of course it's on the top shelf."

Dean pulled down the large, dusty book from the top shelf and brought it over to the table. The book was bound in weathered, old leather and the pages were yellowed and crinkled with age. Missouri opened the book and gingerly turned the delicate pages. She stopped on a page that had the picture of a creature that had the body of a sculpted and toned man, but had the head of a wolf and the tail of a snake. The picture glared at them from within the pages. In large twisting script lettering the word "Aamon" was written.

"They say this demon knows both past and future and has forty legions of demons under its control. I think this is the demon that sent you here," Missouri said with a grave expression.

Annie gulped and glanced at Sam and Dean. "Shit," Dean muttered. "You sure know how to tangle with the wrong kind of demons, don't you?"

Annie shrugged. "Like father, like daughter."

"But," Missouri added. "I don't think this demon acted alone. This demon only _knows _the past and future, it doesn't have the power to control it. I think there's another demon at work here, and this one is stronger and more powerful than this one."

"_Two_ demons! Damn, kid. How the hell did you manage to piss off _two_ demons?" Dean exclaimed.

Annie shrugged and sighed. "What can I say? It's a gift," she said with a sarcastic roll of her eyes.

"So how do we get Annie back home?" Sam asked.

"Well, I think the only way of getting' Annie back home is by killin' it, not sending it back to hell, but actually killin' it. I think then whatever kinda trick it pulled on you will be canceled out," Missouri said.

"Kill it? What could _kill_ a demon?" Sam muttered, voicing his thoughts aloud.

Suddenly all Annie's memories, the stories she remembered her Dad and Uncle telling her of a powerful gun, an old Colt revolver that could kill anything—the one that her family had used against the Yellow-Eyed demon and his army of followers—quickly came to the forefront of her mind. She knew what could kill a demon. Annie looked up and shared a knowing glance with Missouri.

Yes, she knew.

* * *

**A/N**: I know it's been such a long time, but I'm sure you know what to do next. Right?

Reviews are love. And feed my egocentric muse. :P


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Supernatural or any of the characters on the show, though sometimes I certainly wish I did.  
**Warning**: I guess I'll just play it safe and say possible spoilers for all seasons. There are a few specific late Season 1, early Season 2 spoilers in this chapter. You've been warned.

**A/N**: Hello all! It's good to be back yet again with another update. I wanted to thank you lovely readers for the huge amount of reviews last chapter. That was awesome, and I can't think of a better way to be welcomed back from hiatus than a ton of reviews. :D

This chapter really sets the ball rolling for some action that is actually going to come next chapter (which I am more than half way done with. Looks the muse has stuck around. Yay!!)

Hope you all enjoy! :)

* * *

**Chapter 15**

Annie sat on her bed with a book—a prop more than anything—sitting untouched in front of her. After the discussion she'd had with Sam, Dean, and Missouri, she fibbed about going up to the room she was staying in to do some research about the demon. Really, she just needed to be by herself to think things through thoroughly.

_What could _kill_ a demon?_

Sam's words seemed to echo in her mind as a realization began to weigh down on her. Annie knew of the Colt, the gun her family had used to kill a horde of demons.

But her young uncle didn't.

Which only meant that…

"They haven't found it yet," Annie gasped.

Annie racked her brain for the full story of the Colt. She knew it was built by Samuel Colt in 1860-something under a full moon and all that supernatural jazz. But that wasn't important. Leave it to her screwed up brain to remember the random crap and not the vitally important things like _how_ and _when_ her family acquired it.

Annie squeezed her eyes shut and gave her head one firm smack with the palms of her hands. "C'mon, Annie, think!" she muttered to herself. She knew they found it on a hunt a long time ago—by _her_ time standards, it was a long time ago, so that didn't really account for much—but the specifics were a little hazy to her.

'_Maybe Missouri could do that mind-reading mojo again and figure it out _for_ me.'_

But Annie quickly discarded the thought. She didn't want to put herself through that kind of torture again. She was going to figure this out for herself. And the old fashioned way too—by thinking _really_ hard. But so far that wasn't getting her very far.

And she couldn't say anything about the Colt to Sam and Dean. They didn't even know the thing existed yet. Annie had to let them find out about the Colt on their own like they were supposed to.

But then a horrific thought came to Annie. What if they didn't find the Colt for months or even _years_! Would she just be stuck in the past watching her family's futures play out before them while her future, in a sense, began repeating itself. Or would she be the cause of destroying her family's futures?

'_No! I can't think like that. This is all gonna turn out fine. Some how.' _

Annie sighed. What was she going to do? Just sit around and _wait_ for her family to stumble across the demon slaying gun? One thing was for sure, they were never going to find the Colt just sitting around in Missouri's living room. They had to get out there and start hunting again. And in the mean time, Annie would keep wracking her brain for the full story on how her family came to have the Colt in their possession. She was sure it would come to her eventually.

Now, how was she going to get her family to stop their useless research and to get back out on the open road without _actually_ telling them why?

Annie grabbed the book off her bed and ran downstairs. Sam was scanning the pages intently while Dean held a dazed look as he mindlessly flipped the pages. Annie smirked. Her Dad never did like the research part of a hunt. He usually just left it up to her and Sammy to do that part.

Both Sam and Dean were so deep in their own worlds that they didn't even notice Annie come in. She stood at the end of the dining room table opposite them. She took the book in her hands and let it drop with a loud _thunk_ onto the table, pulling both Sam and Dean out of their respective trances as they jumped in their seats.

"Hi, guys," Annie greeted cheerfully with a grin as she stepped around the table and sat down next to Dean.

"Jesus," Dean muttered under his breath. "When did you get here? You're so damn quiet."

Annie just smirked, rolled her eyes and turned to Sam. "How's research?"

Sam huffed. "You could hardly call this research."

"That bad, huh?" Annie asked with a grimace. She new very well how bad the research was going for them. They didn't even know what they were looking for.

"Yeah," Sam sighed. "Have you found anything?" Annie shook her head.

Dean leaned back in his chair, stretched and groaned. She could tell he was getting sick of sitting in one place, which was saying something for someone that spent all their time in a car.

And a thought came to Annie's mind. She planned to take advantage Dean's restlessness.

Dean stood up and sighed. "I've gotta get outta here. Do something other than look at a freakin' book," he grumbled as he made his way towards the door. "I'm goin' for a drive."

And that was exactly the opportunity Annie was looking for. She jumped up and walked over to Dean. "Mind if I go with? I need some air," Annie said, subtly fluttering her eyelashes and turned on the puppy dog eyes. She knew her father's greatest weakness and she was going to milk it for all it was worth.

Dean contemplated it for a moment, but he crumbled under Annie's gaze. How could he say no to that face? "Sure," he said.

Annie grabbed her jacket and slipped her arms through the sleeves. She skipped down the front steps after Dean, deeply inhaling the refreshing scent of the cool clean air. A light breeze blew in Annie's face and slightly rustled her long chocolate brown locks. Annie hopped into the front passenger seat and rolled down the window as soon as she closed her door. She had a brief moment of nostalgia as she thought back on all the times her and her Dad would go out for a drive with the windows rolled down and her Dad's old cassette tapes blaring from the stereo system. They would never drive anywhere specific, just drive for the sake of driving, to feel the wide stretch of open road beneath the Impala's tires and to feel the rhythm of the music pulsate through the upholstery. There was something so peaceful about those drives with her Dad. It was one of the things that made Annie love her Dad so much—the fact that they could just spend time together, not needing any words to be said between them, and be perfectly at peace with one another's presence.

The Impala roared to life and Annie heaved a contented sigh as she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the seat as the car rumbled beneath her. Her father's precious car always did have a calming effect on her.

Dean pulled away from the curb and drove down the small suburban road. A small grin tugged at the corner of Annie's lips as she felt the wind on her face slipping in from the open window. She hadn't felt this content in ages. It helped ease the tension in her shoulders and some of her stress slipped away from her like the roadway behind them. Annie's arm rested on the passenger side door and her fingers drummed along with the rhythm of the Metallica song filtering softly through the speakers.

Dean turned onto a back road that was surrounded on either side by a wide expanse of corn fields. As the Impala picked up speed on the straight stretch of road, he glanced over at Annie with a smirk on her face. She looked so… _happy_. He couldn't help the wide grin that spread across his face. He hadn't seen her smile so openly before. When she smiled, it always seemed like there was something holding her back from being unabashedly joyful—like the stress of her current situation was something that weighed down on her shoulders and she was just barely able to hold up the weight of it all. It caused an aching to arise in Dean's chest as he looked at the weary young woman—his _daughter_—in front of him. It was something he hadn't felt since he'd watched Sam grow from a young innocent boy to a man who'd seen too many horrors in this world to be able to shake off the dark cloud that seemed to hang above his head.

Dean glanced over at Annie again and said with that grin still plastered on his face, "What are you so happy about?"

Annie looked over at him and wouldn't have thought if possible if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, but her smile grew wider. It made her brilliantly green eyes sparkle in a way that Dean had never seen before. She shrugged one shoulder and let out a small laugh. "I just love this car," she said simply.

"Of course you do," Dean said with a chuckle as if her statement were obvious. "You're my kid," he said as if that alone were reason enough for her to have such an attachment to his car.

Annie was slightly taken aback at how casually Dean claimed is parenthood to her. It seemed like he was finally beginning to get used to Annie's presence. She laughed softly. "This is true," she replied with a small nod of her head. "But it's not just that," she added wistfully.

"What do you mean?" Dean inquired conversationally.

"I mean… this is like the only thing that _hasn't_ changed in all the years that have gone by. My whole life, this car has been the one true constant. It's like… It's like having a little piece of home," Annie explained, patting the dashboard affectionately. "Hell, growing up, I probably slept in the backseat more than I did in my own bed," Annie added jabbing her thumb towards the worn leather bench seat behind her.

"Really?" Dean asked with surprise. It was rare that Annie opened up enough to saying anything about herself or her past. It made a sense of joy settle in his chest because it seemed as if Annie was beginning to trust him enough to actually open up to him.

Annie nodded. "I was a restless baby," she said with a shrug. "I could never fall asleep in my crib no matter what you did. So you'd strap me in the back seat and drive around the block for a while. I'd be out cold in under minute," Annie said with a laugh. "There's just something about this car that's just so… calming," she said with a small smile.

"Huh," Dean said with a smile. "You really _are_ my kid." He laughed. "My Dad used to do the same thing with me when I was a kid," Dean said.

Annie's head cocked to the side slightly and her eyebrows rose in surprise. "Really?" she said in wonderment.

Dean nodded. "I never told you that?" he asked with surprise, referring to his future self.

Annie shook her head. "No." It was rare that her father ever spoke of her Grandpa John. It was a sore subject with him. She remembered when she was little asking about her long deceased grandfather that she had never had the pleasure of knowing, and seeing the pain in her father's eyes when he shut down and shot down her questions. Or just shoved in her Uncle Sam's direction for _him_ to deal with the issue.

But this version of her father, the young, reckless hunter, spoke of his father without the pain in his voice, but with pure unabashed pride and admiration. Annie could her it in his voice, see it in his eyes. Dean loved his father and missed him dearly. But he didn't miss him with the kind of longing one would have when someone spoke of a deceased loved one, knowing that they would never see that person ever again. Dean spoke of John with the kind of longing that had a hint of hope lining his words because he didn't _think_ he was going to see his missing father again, he _knew. _He had faith in the fact that wherever his father was, he was alive and well.

It was a nice change from her father.

Annie wanted to ask all kinds of question about John because she knew that Dean would be more than willing to share his stories of his father, but she knew that asking those kinds of questions would tip him off on the fact that her father was much less willing to talk about his fallen father. And that would be bad, very bad.

The topic of John Winchester was officially deemed off limits in Annie's book. Much to her dismay.

Instead of asking the millions of questions that were flying around in her head, Annie decided to settle into a companionable silence as the Impala hugged the curves of the road and flew around corners at a rather accelerated speed.

One question bouncing around in her head, came to the forefront of her mind and she grasped onto it and pondered how to ask it without raising suspicion of her motives. The question entailed: _How to get Sam and Dean out on the road and hunting again. _

She knew if she played her cards right, everything would work out in everyone's favor; Sam and Dean would be doing what they do best—saving people, hunting things, the family business—and Annie would be one step closer to getting home. Where she belonged.

"Hey, Dean?" Annie said. _'Pace yourself. Act casual. You don't want him thinking something's up,' _she told herself.

"Yeah?"

"I was just thinkin'…" Annie began.

"That's never good," Dean chimed in, mimicking the teasing remark Annie had previously used on him.

Annie fixed him with a glare. "Ha ha," she deadpanned, which made Dean grin. "I'm trying to be serious here."

"Sorry," Dean said, his smile still firmly in place. "Continue," he said with a wave of his hand.

"I was just thinking about this whole… situation…with me," Annie said, choosing her words wisely. She sighed. "I mean, it kinda feels like we're not getting anything accomplished. It just feels like we're doing nothing but running into brick walls." She paused for effect. "I'm starting to think I'm never gonna get home," she said softly with a frown.

She looked down at her hands in her lap, picking at her nails, but she watched Dean's reaction out of the corner of her eye. She was surprised at how severely he took her statement. His hands tightened their grip on the wheel and the car seemed to accelerate and growl louder with his intensity—like Dean and the Impala shared emotional states, which really wouldn't have surprised Annie, her Dad seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with that car. Dean jutted his chin out and got that look on his face that he got when something _really_ bothered him.

"Hey," Dean said in a hard voice as he glanced over at Annie. He seemed to have noticed how rough his voice had gotten, so when he spoke again, his voice was softer, more soothing and sympathetic. "Don't worry," he said. "We're gonna figure this out." He peered into Annie's bright green eyes. "You _will_ get back home," he said firmly.

Annie's lips pulled up at the corner of her mouth. The ferocity in Dean's reaction seemed to make her happy. The fact that Dean seemed to care about her enough, in his current state as a twenty-six year old father of a sixteen year old—whom he'd just met— who also happened to be from the future, it definitely said something.

"Thank you," Annie said so softly, that Dean wasn't quite sure he heard her at first.

"For what?' he asked.

"For trying so hard. For helping me." She paused. "For taking me in and taking care of me."

"You're family. That's what family does; we take care of each other," Dean said.

"Yeah, but this is different," Annie sighed. "You're not _supposed_ to take care of me. Not yet at least. You're barely much older than _I_ am. It hardly seems fair for you and Sam to take care of me like I'm your own like that." Annie was silent for a moment. "And I can hardly imagine this has been easy for you," she said.

"It hasn't," Dean replied softly. A sinking feeling settled in the pit of Annie's stomach and she could only describe it as one thing: guilt. "But you've made this a lot easier," Dean added. Annie looked over at him, puzzled. He kept his eyes on the road as he drove, purposefully avoiding eye contact as he spoke. Annie processed this and realized he must have been letting some of his guard down and sharing some of his private thoughts. Annie classified that moment under nothing short of a miracle. "You're a good kid. You've been really patient with us. And I'm surprised how level headed you've been with us, well, me, really. Especially when I was acting like a total dick," he said sheepishly.

"I've had a lot of practice," Annie replied softly, the corner of her mouth turning up at one side.

Dean chuckled and Annie had achieved what she had been shooting for with her comment: breaking the steadily increasing tension between them. Annie knew how much emotional sharing her father could handle and he was well beyond his limit. "I guess you have, huh?" Dean said with a sideways glance and a smirk. Annie nodded with a small smile on her face. "I'm not too much of a dick, am I?" Dean asked curiously, tentatively poking at Annie's boundaries.

"Not usually," she said. "But you have your moments."

Dean laughed quietly to himself. His attempts at pushing her carefully laid boundaries were a success and he guessed that I may in large part be due to the fact that Annie was really beginning to trust them. He knew that she was still wary when they asked about her past, but he didn't blame her. She had the potential to unravel all of their futures if she slipped up even in the slightest. He couldn't imagine having that kind of massive burden weighing down on your shoulders.

As much as he _really_ wanted to know more about their futures, as much as he wanted to know more about Annie even _more_, he just didn't want to risk it; he was just going to have to wait like he was supposed to, even though patience wasn't his strongest trait.

"Dean," Annie sighed, her tone changing from teasing and lighthearted to wary and sallow. "I kinda think maybe we should pack up and leave Missouri's," she suggested.

"Why?" Dean asked. "What about researching and getting you home? You're the one that's so eager to get out of here," he said sounding slightly stunned.

"Really, Dean, you call what we've been doing for the past three days _research_?" Annie replied. "'Cause I call it 'sitting on our asses, doing nothing'. We've got _nothing_ from our so called _research_."

"But what about finding a way to kill this demon to get you home?"

"I think if there was a way to kill the demon written in a book somewhere, we would've found it by now," Annie said pointedly. She sighed. "Right now we're just wasting time. We could be doing something so much better with out time."

"Like what?" Dean asked.

"Like saving people, hunting things," she paused and nudged Dean with her elbow, "the family business."

Dean gave Annie a strange look. Sometimes the likeness between them was almost eerie. "So you think we should pack up, drop all of our research, and hit the road to go hunting?" Dean reasoned slowly.

Annie shrugged one shoulder. "It's what you guys would be doing if _I_ wasn't here, wouldn't it?" she said.

"Is that what this is about?" Dean said. "You trying not to mess up the time space continuum or whatever and get us back to what we would originally be doing?" He looked over at Annie, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Annie shrugged again. "That's part of it I guess. It makes sense if you ask me. But mostly, I think we're just wasting our time hanging out at Missouri's. As much as I love her, I think it's time we move on," Annie stated, trying her best to sound nonchalant. Dean already seemed suspicious of her motives; she didn't need him asking anymore questions than necessary.

"I don't know…" he said uncertainly.

"Think about it, Dean," Annie stated. "Does it seem logical to just stick around here _hoping_ to find answers when there are people that need our help?"

"_Our_ help?" Dean asked, one eyebrow raised questioningly as he looked over at Annie.

Annie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, Dean, _our_ help. I'm as much of a hunter as you are," she said, slightly offended that he seemed to so easily put her in that damsel in distress stereotype, even after all they'd been through together.

Dean sighed and chewed on his lip a little. He glanced over at Annie, who gave him a pointed look, before casting his gaze back to the road. Dean had begun to drive back into town and was steering the Impala back towards Missouri's house. He sighed again and looked back over at Annie. "I'll talk to Sam about it and see what he thinks," Dean said, sounding defeated.

Annie nodded in reply, but inwardly she was grinning broadly. It looked like her little plan had worked. She had a feeling that Sam would see the logical solution to their situation. Dean had bought into and she was pretty sure Sam would too.

* * *

Annie was in the kitchen with Missouri helping her prepare dinner while Sam and Dean talked. Every once and a while she would wander a little closer to the kitchen door than necessary to try and catch a part of their conversation.

"Stop bein' so nosey and get your be-_hind_ over here," Missouri chastised from her place at the stove. Annie gave a sheepish grin and walked over to her. "I know you're tryin' to figure out if your little _plan_ worked," Missouri whispered. "But let them boys have a little privacy."

So Missouri knew of Annie's little scheme. She hoped Missouri wasn't offended or got the wrong idea.

"Of course I'm not offended," Missouri replied to Annie's unspoken statement.

Annie gave Missouri a small smile. "Good. I was afraid you would think I didn't _want_ to be here anymore," Annie said.

"Oh, child, I don't think that at all," Missouri said warmly.

"I know the reason you want to get out here so badly is for their sake as well as your own. You're right about one thing," Missouri said. "They shouldn't be here right now. There are other things they should be doin'." She turned back to the pot on the stove and stirred the source of the delicious aroma that was filtering out of the pot and through the rest of the house.

"Thank you for letting us stay here, Missouri," Annie said gratefully.

"Sweetheart, you know that you Winchesters are always welcome in my house," Missouri said lovingly. "Now, darling, would you mind getting the carrots from the fridge and chop them up for me?" Missouri asked.

Annie smiled. She knew what Missouri was doing. She was trying to busy her up to get her mind off of things. But Annie took the diversion welcomingly. "Sure," she replied.

Annie pulled the carrots from the fridge, ran them under the sink to clean them before she laid them out three at a time on the cutting board and diced them up into small circles. As she moved onto the next set of three, Sam and Dean strode in through the door. Annie tried to keep her mind focused on cutting the carrots, but she couldn't help but to look up at them for the verdict.

Dean breathed in deeply as he walked into the kitchen and said, "Mmm, whatever's cookin' smell delicious." He stepped over to the stove to try and get a little taste of what was in the pot. But before his hand could touch the lid, Missouri whacked him with the wooden spoon in her hand.

"Boy, you're gonna have to wait till dinner time, like the rest of us to get a bite to eat. Now you back away from the stove before I whack you with my spoon again," Missouri scolded.

Annie kept her eyes trained down at the carrots and bit her lip to keep the laugh that was bubbling up inside her from slipping out. Dean swiftly moved away from the stove and over towards Annie. He looked at her with an expression that was puzzled and slightly impress. "You can cook?" he asked.

Annie shrugged. "I know my way around a kitchen," she said.

"Alright, boys, it's gettin' a little crowded in here. Go make yourselves useful somewhere else," Missouri said ushering them out of the kitchen.

Annie looked at Missouri with confusion at how she abruptly kicked Sam and Dean out of the kitchen. What was that all about?

When Missouri returned, she sighed and looked at Annie with a sad look in her warm eyes. "Dean was ready to start askin' questions about your Momma," she whispered sorrowfully.

Annie felt something in her chest clench and slowly rip apart. If Dean has asked about her mom, she wouldn't have been able to answer it, mostly because she wouldn't know the answer. She had never had the pleasure of knowing her mother, much like Sam, because she was taken from her by the Yellow-eyed demon when she was very young. "Oh," was all Annie was able to say, her voice cracking over the single syllable.

"He's gettin' curious about her, you know," Missouri said continuing her work on preparing dinner. "Sam too."

Annie nodded. She kept her eyes down and focused on dicing up the carrots carefully. She figured it was just a matter of time before they started asking questions. Annie laid down the knife and looked up into Missouri's honey colored eyes. "What should I do?"

"Sweetheart, I'm afraid that's something you'll have to decide for yourself," Missouri replied.

Annie heaved a sigh and ran her fingers through her long tousled hair. "I don't want to lie to them," she said. She leaned heavily against the counter, using it as an anchor to keep her vertical. "But I think lies are far better than the truth," Annie said softly. Annie put her head in her hands and groaned. "I was afraid this would happen but I was hoping I'd be outta here before it got to this point."

Missouri walked over to Annie and wrapped her arms around the young girl's shoulders in a gentle embrace. "Shh, darling, it's okay," she cooed. She pulled Annie away and cupped Annie's face between her hands. She looked into Annie's brilliantly green eyes that were swimming with unshed tears. "I promise you, sweet pea, that everything will be alright no matter what happens," Missouri said gently.

Annie swallowed around the thick lump in her throat and forced a small smile on her face. It didn't feel genuine, and she knew it certainly didn't _look_ genuine, but it was the best she could do right now. Missouri gave Annie's cheek a light tap before turning back to her work. Annie scrubbed at her stinging tear-filled eyes and wiped at her face. She took in a deep breathe and ran Missouri's words through her head. She was right; everything _was_ going to be alright. She'd make sure of that. No matter what happened, Annie just had to believe that everything was going to work out for the better and that she would get home one day.

* * *

When dinner was ready, Missouri sent Annie off to find the rest of her family. She found them in the living room, playing a game of cards and conversing casually. Annie walked up behind Dean. Sam looked up at Annie and smiled, "Did Missouri kick you out of the kitchen too?" he asked.

Annie shook her head. "No, dinner's ready." Annie glanced down at Dean's cards before looking back up Sam. "And Dean's got a full house," she said to Sam with a playful grin on her face.

"Hey!" Dean exclaimed as he glared up at Annie, but there wasn't any real venom behind his scowl.

Sam let out a loud bark of laughter. "Thanks for that," Sam said as he laid out his hand, revealing a straight flush, beating his brother at the game.

Dean groaned and tossed his cards onto the coffee table as Sam gathered up his winnings—which was a small pile of one's and five's and a single ten dollar bill—into his hand. "Thanks a lot, jerk," Dean grumbled. "I thought you were on my side here," he said.

"I don't take sides with the two of you," Annie replied. "I'm Switzerland." Sam chuckled and Dean's brow furrowed in confusion. She merely flashed them a grin, turned on her heel and strode out of the living room and into the dining room.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Annie heard Dean mumbled from behind her.

When they entered the room, Missouri had already set the table and was carrying in a tray of four piping hot bowls of the beef stew she had prepared with a loaf of freshly baked bread from the bakery in town in her hand. She placed the bowls at their prospective places at the table.

Dean and Annie sat next to each other while Sam and Missouri sat beside each other across from them. Missouri cut four large slices from the loaf of bread and placed them on the napkins beside the bowls. "Dig in," Missouri said.

Dean didn't waste any time and immediately lifted a hefty spoon full of the stew into his mouth. "Mmmm," Dean sighed. "This is great Missouri," he said around a mouth full of the stew.

Sam grimaced and shot an apologetic glance towards Missouri, before turning to Annie. They simultaneously rolled their eyes.

Sam lifted the spoon full of the wonderfully smelling dinner towards his mouth, but paused on his way there. He looked over at Dean and Annie in wonderment as they simultaneously reached for their pieces of bread, ripped off a corner of it, dipped it into the stew to soak up the juices, before gnawing on it.

"That's so freakin' weird," Sam said, not fully aware that he said it aloud.

Annie and Dean looked over at Sam with mirrored looks of confusion and said at the same, "What?"

"They are very much alike, aren't they?" Missouri said, with a crooked grin.

Dean glanced at Annie. Annie glanced at Dean. They looked at each other for a moment, and then shrugged and went back to eating their meals.

They all continued to eat their meals in a comfortable silence. But after no one had said anything for a while, Annie couldn't take it anymore. She had to know what they had decided.

"So," Annie said after she forced a piece of bread down her throat. "What's the verdict?" she asked looking from Sam and then to Dean.

Sam and Dean looked at one another, having a conversation that only they were privy to—well, and Missouri too, but she kind of cheated in the sense that she could _read their minds_. Annie would've been annoyed with the boys' silent conversation if she wasn't so used to it.

"We think it's not a bad idea," Sam said.

"We're leaving tomorrow," Dean added.

Annie nodded, but in her head she was doing a little victory dance. Annie saw Missouri grinning to herself out of the corner of her eye. "Okay," Annie said, trying to sound nonchalant.

* * *

The next morning, Annie, Sam and Dean were lugging their bags down the steps in front of Missouri's house and to the car. The sun hung low in the horizon and bathed the landscape in its brilliant golden rays. The morning dew still clung to the blades of grass and soaked into the bottom of their jeans as they walked across the lawn. A faint nip still hung in the air and bit at their cheeks. Dean wiped off the thin layer of precipitation off of the trunk of the Impala before opening it. Annie hefted the bag higher onto her shoulder and rather unceremoniously slung it into the trunk with a loud thud, with Sam and Dean following suit.

Sam and Dean stepped over to Missouri and she pulled them into a warm embrace. "Now, you two don't be strangers now, ya hear?" she told them.

"Yes ma'am," Dean said.

"Sure thing, Missouri," Sam replied. "Thanks for everything.

She looked up at them warmly and said, "You are very welcome."

Dean stepped back over to the Impala and leaned back against the rear end of the car with Sam leaning beside him. Annie realized with a faint pang of affection that they were giving her a moment to say goodbye to Missouri alone; they were accepting the fact that there were some things that were only meant for her and Missouri's ears and granting them their right to privacy now matter how much they wanted to be in on everything.

Missouri smiled down at Annie and pulled her into her arms. "I'll be seein' you," Missouri said firmly.

Annie pulled away from the embrace, smiled warmly and said, "Yes, you will."

"You take care of yourself," Missouri said.

"I will."

Annie looked into Missouri's honey brown eyes one last time. Annie didn't want to say goodbye to her one true connection to the future, her home. But Annie realized that she wasn't saying goodbye to home or familiarity. She thought of Dean and how much he'd opened up and accepted and truly cared about her. She thought of Sam and his persistent research and dedication to helping her get home. She thought of them, her family, her young father and uncle, and realized that her connection to home wasn't goin' anywhere.

Annie rejoined her family back over at the car. Dean stood up fully and got behind the wheel of his car. Sam folded himself into the front seat while Annie slid in the back. Dean turned the key in the ignition and the Impala roared to life. It took off out of town and sped off down the open stretch of road, taking them wherever their next adventure would take them.

* * *

**A/N**: I hope I don't have to remind anyone what to do next. You should know the drill by now. :)

Thanks a bunch!!


	16. Author's Note

Hello T&C Readers! I apologize ahead of time for probably psyching you out with this author's note and making you think this is a chapter, I just felt the need to let you all know that I'm still alive over here.

So it certainly has been a while since I've updated here and I am truly sorry.

This year has been one hell of a year. That's the only way that I can describe it. My real life has been... interesting, and then on top of that, school life has pretty much been making me its bitch. But thankfully my Senior year of high school is coming to a close (12 days, baby!), so I am hoping to use my limited free time over the summer to catch up and conclude this fic.

I have not forgotten about it, and I have gotten all your reviews/PM's begging me to update again. I'm sorry to say, but I think my muse ran off with Edward Cullen... and now he's holding it hostage. I'm gonna have to go have a talk with that boy and let him know which boys were the first ones to capture my muses heart and explain to him that those boys will always have a piece of my muse's heart.

So yeah, in conclusion: I'm sorry, and I'm working on getting my ass back on the Supernatural saddle. I may need a boost from time to time, so feel free to give me a switch kick in the ass.

Thanks a bunch! And thanks for not giving up on me (Lord knows, I would have given up on me loooong ago).

St0pSmackinMe07


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